CO
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational
Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEGG, D;D., Minister of Newington Tree Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,
Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,
Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby
terian Church, Edinburgh.
Oitor.
REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., EDINBURGH.
:\
.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
or
THOMAS MANTON, DD.
VOLUME XIX.
CONTAINING
SERMONS ON SEVERAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
LONDON:
JAMES NISBET & CO, 21 BERNERS STREET
1874.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNB AND COMPANY
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
CONTENTS.
SERMONS ON SEVERAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE PAGB
SERMONUPONJoHNXviii.il, . . . : ".i/ . 3
LUKE xxiii. 34, . . . . .14
JOHNXIX. 30, . ,i(.I.i: . . 29
ECCLESIASTES vii. 29, . >hyv/ . . 49
ECCLESIASTES xii. 7, ;:.iL i i t : . ..- 61
SERMONS UPON KEVELATION i 5, 6, . . . 80
LEVITICUS xix. 17, . . . .107
1 CORINTHIANS xv. 19, . . . . . 123
SERMON UPON EOMANS ii. 7, . . . . . 145
2 CORINTHIANS xiii. 14, . . JV . 156
SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 1-27
Sermon I. " Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear chil
dren," . . . ' Ji . 169
II. " And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,
and given himself for us an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour," 179
III. " But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetous-
ness, let it not be once named among you, as
becometh saints," . . ... 189
IV. " Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jest
ing, which are not convenient ; but rather
giving of thanks," . . . . 199
V. "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor
unclean person, nor covetous man who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God," . 209
VI CONTENTS.
PAGE
SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 1-27 continued.
Sermon VI. " Let no man deceive you with vain words ; for
because of these things cometh the wrath of
God upon the children of disobedience," . 220
VII. " Be not ye therefore partakers with them," . 232
VIH, " For ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye
are light in the Lord : walk as children of
light," ..... 244
IX. " For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness,
and righteousness, and truth," . . 257
X. " For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness
and righteousness, and truth," . . . 268
XI. " Goodness, righteousness, and truth," . . 278
XII. " Proving what is acceptable to the Lord," . 288
XIII. " And have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, but rather reprove them," 300
XIV. " For it is a shame even to speak of those things
which are done of them in secret," . . 310
XV. "But all things that are reproved are made
manifest by the light ; for whatsoever doth
make manifest is light," . . . 319
XVI. " Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light," .... 329
XVII. " Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light," .... 338
XVIII. " See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as
fools, but as wise," .... 347
XIX. " Eedeeming the time, because the days are
evil," ..... 358
XX. " Kedeeming the time, because the days are
evil," ..... 367
XXI. " Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understand
ing what the will of the Lord is," . . 378
XXII. " And be not drunk with wine, wherein is
excess ; but be filled with the Spirit," . 389
XXIIL " But be filled with the Spirit," ... .398
CONTENTS. Vii
PAGE
SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 1-27 continued.
Sermon XXIV. " Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and
hymns, and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to
the Lord," ... 408
XXV. " Giving thanks always for all things unto
God and the Father, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ," . . . 417
XXVI. " Submitting yourselves one to another in
the fear of God," . . .427
XXVII. " Wives, submit yourselves unto your own
husbands, as unto the Lord," . . 436
XXVIII. " For the husband is the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the
church ; and he is the saviour of the
body," .-' . . . ' 446
XXIX. " Therefore, as the church is subject to
Christ, so let the wives be to their own
husbands in everything," . . 457
XXX. " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself
for it," . . . .468
XXXI. " That he might sanctify and cleanse it by
the washing of water through the
word," ..-. . . 477
XXXII. " That he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it
should be holy, and without blemish," 486
SERMONS
SEVEEAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
VOL. XIX
SERMON UPON JOHN XVHI. 11.
The cup ivhich my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?
JOHN xviii. 11.
THESE words are part of Christ's rebuke to Peter, who, when the high
priest's servants came to attack Christ, draweth his sword, and cuts
off Malchus' ear, which our Lord first healeth, and then reproveth his
disciple for this temerarious action : ' Put up thy sword into the sheath.'
He reproveth him, partly because it becometh no private man by oppo
sition to resist authority ; but the chief reason was, our Lord would
not be hindered in performing the great act of his mediation, his dying
for sinners. You shall see in another place, when Peter counselled
him against his sufferings, he rebuked him with the same severity that
he doth the devil tempting him to idolatry : ' Get thee behind me, Satan,'
Mat. xvi. 23, compared with Mat. iv. 10. And here this rash and
unseasonable interposition, to save his master by force, is again
reproved. In Peter's temerity, take notice of the difference between
military valour and Christian fortitude. He that faltered and was
blown down by the weak blast of a damsel's question hath now the
courage with a single sword to venture upon an whole band of men.
Military valour is boisterous, and dependeth upon the heat of blood and
spirits, and is better for a sudden onset than a deliberate trial ; but
Christian fortitude dependeth on the strength of faith, and lieth in a
meek subjection to God, and will enable us to endure the greatest
torments rather than encroach upon the conscience of our duty to God.
A man of a military forward spirit may outbrave dangers when they
are sudden, but faileth or fainteth in weaker trials, that are managed
rather in a way of charge and accusation than force. But in Christ's
rebuke, take notice of his obedience to God and love to men. Obedience
to God : Shall I not suffer patiently, without resisting, what my Father
hath determined me to suffer ? And love to men ; it was the cup which
God had given him to drink for the good of his people, and therefore
he would by no means decline it.
In the words take notice of (1.) The notion by which affliction is
expressed ; it is ' a cup.' (2.) God's ordering of it, ' Which my Father
hath given me.' (3.) Christ's submission, ' Shall I not drink it ? '
1. For the term or notion whereby Christ's sufferings are expressed,
' a cup." We read of a threefold cup in scripture (1.) A cup of tri-
4 SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11.
bulation ; (2.) A cup of consolation ; (3.) A cup of salvation and
thanksgiving.
The first of these is often mentioned : Ps. xi. 6, ' Upon the wicked
he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; this
shall be the portion of their cup.' So the prophet Jeremiah is bidden,
chap. xxv. 15, ' Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all
the nations to whom I send thee to drink it.' So Ps. Ixxv. 8, 'For in the
hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red ; it is full of mix
ture : and he poureth out the same ; but the dregs thereof, all the
wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.' Thus
God's dispensations are ordinarily expressed by a cup poured out and
given to men to drink. And therefore our Lord Christ himself useth
this form of speech, not only here, but elsewhere ; as Mat. xxvi. 39,
' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' It was a dread
ful cup that he was to drink of.
The second cup, the cup of consolation, is spoken of Jer. xvi. 7,
' Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their
father or for their mother ; ' taken from the Jewish custom of sending
it to them that mourned, or to condemned persons. . The same is spoken
of Prov. xxxi. 6, 7, ' Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish,
and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts ; let him drink and forget
his poverty, and remember his misery no more ; ' Amos ii. 8, ' They
drank the wine of the condemned.'
The third was the cup of salvation, spoken of Ps. cxvi. 13, 'I will
take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.' Or
the cup of deliverance, used more solemnly in the temple by the priests,
or more privately in the family. Sometimes called the drink-offering
of praise ; and to which the 'cup of blessing,' 1 Cor. x. 16, used in the
Lord's supper, hath a great respect ; for it was always used with cer
tain expressions of commemoration and praise. The first is plainly
here intended, the cup of tribulation, so called because our afflictions
are measured out by God, both for quantity and quality, either by his
justice or by his wisdom and mercy.
2. God's ordering of it, ' Which my Father hath given me.' Christ
mentioneth not the malice of his enemies, but the will of God and his
Father. His hand in Christ's sufferings is often asserted in scripture :
Isa. liii. 10, 'It pleased the Father to bruise him ; he hath put him
to grief;' Acts ii. 23, 'Him, being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain ;' Acts iv. 28, 'For to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done/ God did not excite
and instigate those wicked wretches to that cruelty which they exer
cised upon Christ, yet it was predetermined by God for the salvation
of mankind.
3. Christ's submission, ' Shall I not drink it ? ' If God put a bitter
cup into our hands, we must not refuse it, for here we have Christ's
example. The meaning is, this bitter passion which the Father hath
laid upon me, shall I not suffer it patiently ?
Doct. That it is the duty of Christians patiently to suffer whatever
God hath appointed them to surfer.
The note is plain. I shall discuss it in this method
SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11. 5
1. That in all calamities we should look to God.
2. That it is a great advantage to patience when we can consider
him not as an angry judge, but as a gracious father.
3. That it well becometh his people to endure that willingly which
he calleth them unto.
I. That in all calamities we should look unto God : Ps. xxxix. 9, ' I
was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.' That is
the first thing that quieteth the heart, when we see God's hand in all
things that befall us. So Hezekiah : Isa. xxxviii. 15, 'What shall I say ?
he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it.' If God hath
done it, it is time to cease, and say no more ; for why should we con
tend with the Lord ? We murmur and repine if we look no higher
than second causes ; but owning God's hand, we have nothing to reply
by way of murmuring or expostulations. So Job, chap. i. 21, ' The
Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name
of the Lord.' He doth not say, Dominus dedit, diabolus abstulit The
Lord hath given, and the devil hath taken away ; nor yet, 6 XaXSato?
a^e/Xero, the Chaldean or Sabean hath taken away ; but he owneth
God in the providence. Compare the different carriage of David when
Nabal slighted him and when Shimei railed on him. The one you
have 1 Sam. xxv. 21, 22, ' Now David had said, Surely in vain have I
kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was
missed of all that pertained to him ; but he hath requited me evil for
good. So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave
of all that pertaineth to him by the morning light any that pisseth
against the wall.' A rash speech, because he only reflected upon the
unkindness of Nabal, and meditateth nothing but revenge. The other
you have 2 Sam. xvi. 11, ' Let him alone, and let him curse, for the
Lord hath bidden him.' David then considered not the instrument,
but the supreme author ; he looked not to the stone, but the hand that
flung it, to God's providence, who thought good by that means to
chastise him. If we mind providence rather than revenge, we must
not reflect on the injury done to us, nor the malice of our adversaries,
but the will and good pleasure of God. So Joseph : Gen. 1. 20, ' As
for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.' So
he calmeth his heart, and fortifieth it against all thoughts of revenge
against his brethren. In short, there are two sorts of evils and afflic
tions, such as come immediately from the hand of God, or such injuries
and afflictions wherein men are the instruments. Patience hath to do
with both, that we may bear afflictions from God without murmuring,
and injuries from men without thought of revenge. Such as come im
mediately from the hand of God are not to be looked upon as chances
or casual accidents, but the Lord is to be owned in them, and then we
must ' humble ourselves under his mighty hand,' 1 Peter v. 6. In in
juries from men, we must consider they are also governed by God's
providence, and sent by God as well as other evils. Some are patient
under an affliction from God, but very impatient under injurious deal
ing from men ; as when a shower of rain falleth from heaven, we bear
it quietly, but if one throw a basin of water upon us, we storm, and are
vexed at heart. But if we did look through the wrongs of men to God,
they would not be so irksome to us, be they injuries in civil commerce,
6 SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11.
such as oppression, detention of dues, contumelies, reproaches, or per
secution for righteousness' sake ; see God in all, that you may not fret
at it.
Two things we must lay do.wn briefly
1. That nothing falleth out without God's particular providence :
Lam. iii. 37, 38, ' Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when
the Lord commandeth it not ? Out of the mouth of the Most High
proceedeth not evil and good ; ' that is, nothing is done here below but
by a divine disposal and providence, nothing but what he by his secret
wisdom hath pre-ordained and appointed.
2. That cross issues and punishments, as well as benefits and pros
perous successes, come all of God : Isa. xlv. 7, ' I form the light, and
create darkness ; I make peace, and create evil : I, the Lord, do all
these things.' All evils of punishment come from God, as well as the
blessings of providence ; and without this principle we could neither
be thankful for the one nor humble under the other. We look upon
it as a piece of atheism and irreligiousness if we be not thankful for
benefits ; it is as great an evil if we be not humble under punishments.
We count him a profane man that should thank his dungcart for his
good crop ; and doth not he as much deny providence that in all his
afflictions looketh only to instruments, and not to the hand of God ?
that rageth against men, but doth not take notice of the will of his
heavenly Father ? It is very notable, Jonah iv. 6, 7, that God first
prepared a gourd to shelter Jonah from the scorching heat of the sun,
and then prepared a worm that smote the gourd, and deprived him of
that comfort and benefit. He that gave us the delight in any natural
comfort doth also take it from us. The same hand must be owned in
giving and taking, or else we shall not prevent atheism. He that
created the gourd created the worm ; and he that governed the gourd,
and made it a refreshing shadow from the heat of the sun, he governed
the worm to eat out the root and life of the gourd. As Christ here
saith, not the Jews or pharisees provided this bitter cup for him, but
the Father. (Ecuraenius, an ancient Greek writer on the scripture, in
his comment on the Acts of the Apostles, telleth us that once a great
plague invaded the city of Athens, and miserably desolated it, which
also other histories testify ; the citizens being almost consumed, ran to
the image of Jupiter with sacrifices, vows, and prayers, to save them
from .the pestilence, but Jupiter could not do it ; then to Saturn,
Mercury, Neptune, and other gods, but still in vain, for the plague
daily increased, and was more mortal and deadly. And when this was
considered in the court of the Areopagites, a wise man among them said,
Without doubt these gods known to us did not send this pestilence,
because upon our prayers and supplications to them they cannot take
it away ; there may be some other god unknown to us who sent it, and
who alone can cause it to cease, therefore he is to be sought unto, an altar
erected to him, and sacrifices and intercessions offered to him, to take
away this plague from us. And this writer thinketh that this was the
original of that altar which Paul saw with this inscription, ' To the un
known God,' Acts xvii. 23. I have brought this account to show you
that all evil is sent by God, and his hand must be acknowledged in it, or
else religion will fall to the ground. When the disciples were terrified
SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11. 7
in a great storm, Christ cometh walking upon the waters, and telleth
them, ' Be of good cheer, it is I ; be not afraid,' Mark vi. 50. They
thought it was a spectre, but Christ saith, ' It is I.' In short, the author
of all the annoyances and afflictions that befalleth us in this life is God,
their end is repentance, their cause is sin ; and this well thought of
will silence all our rnurmurings.
II. That it is a great advantage to patience when we can consider
him not as an angry judge, but as a gracious father. The cup which
Christ drank off was very bitter, a-nd yet he saith, ' The cup which my
Father hath given me.' Now every one cannot apply this comfort,
for many are not so much as in a visible relation to God, and others
that visibly live in his family yet are not owned and acknowledged by
him as his dear children, rather counted bastards than sons, as the
apostle speaketh, Heb. xii. 7, 8, ' If ye endure chastening, God dealeth
with you as with sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth
not ? But if ye be without chastisements, whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.' Not legitimate, but degenerate
children. Others have a special relation to God, such as is between
father and children : 2 Cor. vi. 18, ' I will be unto you a Father, and ye
shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.' These have
an interest in his dearest love, and a right to his choicest benefits ; and
they shall know it by his fatherly dealing with them. Now to such
this comfort properly belongeth ; for though God may punish and afflict
others, yet he cannot be said to chastise them as a father, but as an
angry judge he doth punish them for their offences and rebellions.
Therefore, if you would apply this comfort, you must clear up your
interest, enter into covenant with him, and sincerely believe in Christ,
and devote yourselves to him, that he may be your God and Father.
But because being and seeing are two things, and many that are the
children of God may not know themselves to be so, therefore I shall
(1.) State this matter ; (2.) Show what an advantage it is to patience.
First, I shall state this matter in these considerations
1. God is a father by creation or adoption.
[1.] In a more general respect by creation, as Adam is called 'the son
of God,' Luke iii. 38. So Mai. ii. 10, ' Have we not all one Father ?
hath not one God created us ? ' God is more our Father than our
natural parents are ; they concur to our beings but instrumentally, but
God originally. It is God that formeth us in the womb ; we are his
workmanship, not our parents', both as to body and soul. As to the
body : Ps. cxix. 73, ' Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.'
They know not whether the child be male or female, beautiful or
deformed ; they cannot tell the number of the bones, muscles, veins,
and arteries, which God hath framed in such a curious and exact order.
But for the soul, which is the better part of man, that is of his immediate
creation ; therefore God is called, ' The Father of spirits,' Heb. xii. 9.
They do not run in the channel of carnal generation or fleshly descent.
In this general sense, by virtue ef creation, God is the Father of all
men, good and bad ; which though it give God a title to our love, service,
and honour, yet it giveth us no interest in his special benefits, or the
fruits of his fatherly love ; it moveth God not to stir up all his wrath
against them, yet not to bestow saving grace, his favour and image,
upon them.
8 SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11.
[2.] More especially, and in a more comfortable sense, there is
a more peculiar sort of men to whom God is a Father by adoption,
and they are his dear children. This title is not by nature, but by
grace; the foundation of it was laid in the election of God: Eph.
i. 5, ' Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself, according, to the good pleasure of his will.'
But before this decree could be executed and take place, the redemp
tion of Christ was necessary ; for we read, Gal. iv. 4, 5, ' When the
fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons.' Sin needed to be expiated by
the Son of God in our nature before God would bestow this honour
upon any of mankind ; Christ was to take a mother upon earth, that
we might have a Father in heaven : ' Forasmuch as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part- of the
same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of
death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage,' Heb. ii. 14, 15. And besides,
this grace is applied to us by the Spirit, who by his effectual operation
bringeth us into a state of love and sonship. As a Father by creation,
he giveth us our natural endowments ; as a Father by adoption, he giveth
us the supernatural grace of the Spirit, to sanctify and change our
hearts ; for regeneration and adoption always go together : John i. 12,
13, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ; which were
born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.' And by the new nature put into us we are brought into
this new state and relation : Gal. iv. 6, 'And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father.' The soul that was shy of God then inclineth to him as our
Lord, that we may honour, love, and obey him, and as our happiness,
that we may seek after him, and live in communion with him. And
lastly, the act on our part, that we may be received into the number of
God's children, is an owning and acknowledging Christ to all the ends
and purposes for which God hath appointed him ; if we really entertain
him as sent by God to be our Lord and Saviour, we are advanced to
this dignity : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name.' This of the privilege.
2. You having received this grace, it is your duty to get it evidenced,
that you may maintain a comfortable sense of your adoption. It is
evidenced by the dwelling and working of the Holy Spirit in you : Rom.
viii. 16, ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are
the children of God.' He witnesseth objectively and effectively, per
modum argumenti, and per modum efficientis causes by way of
argument, and by way of causal efficiency. Objectively, if I have the
Spirit of God framing my heart to love, and honour, and fear, and obey
him, and delight in communion with him, surely I am a child of God ;
for where these are, sincere love to God prevaileth: 1 John iv. 13,
' Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath
given us of his Spirit/ There he speaketh of love to God, and so for
SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11. 9
honour ; it is else but an empty title : Mai. i. 6, ' If I then be a father,
where is mine honour ? If I be a master, where is my fear ? ' So for
fear or childlike reverence, that we dare not offend him : Ps. ciii. 13,
' As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him.' His children, and those that fear him. are equivalent expres
sions: 1 Peter i. 17, ' If ye call on the Father, who without respect of
persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your
sojourning here in fear.' I illustrate by that, Jer. xxxv. 6, ' And they
said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Kechab our father
commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your
sons, for ever.' So for obedience : 1 Peter i. 14, ' As obedient chil
dren, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your
ignorance ; ' Eph. v. 1, ' Be ye followers of God, as dear children.' So
for delighting in communion with him : Kom. viii. 15, ' For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father ; ' Gal. iv. 6, ' And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' This is most felt in prayer : Zech. xii.
10, ' I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and supplications ; ' Kom. viii. 26, ' Like
wise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered ; ' Jude 20, ' But ye,
beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Ghost.' Here we have the nearest familiarity with God whilst
we dwell in the flesh, and our souls are carried to God as light bodies
move upward. This is the matter of the evidence, but the Spirit giveth
a sight or sense of this ; if he be not grieved and ill-treated, but his
sanctifying motions be obeyed, he sheddeth abroad the love of God in
our hearts, and filleth us with much joy and peace.
3. If this be faithfully done, and there be no other reason to break
our confidence, the bare affliction, or the greatness and grievousness of
your afflictions, should not ; for these sharp afflictions are not only
consistent with this relation, as the instance of Christ showeth, but
also it is an act of his fatherly love and discipline. The exhortation
speaketh to us as children : Heb. xii. 5-8, ' Ye have forgotten the
exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him ; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with
you as sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? but
if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye
bastards, and not sons.' God's children must look to be chastened ;
neither must our Father's hand be slighted, nor must we faint under
it. It is an act of love and kindness to us, that he will not suffer us
to go on in our sins. God seeineth to cast off them whom he leaveth
to their own hearts' lusts : Hosea iv. 17, ' Ephraim is joined to idols ;
let him alone.' But he loveth whom he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. The rod of correction will not wholly be laid
aside while God's children are in the flesh. In heaven, where there
are no dangers, there is no use of it any more, because then we are
10 SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11.
fully and perfectly sanctified, but here you must be content to submit
to the discipline of the family. Certainly you must not question his
love because something falleth out contrary to your desires. God is a
Father when he frowneth and when he smileth ; he is the God of the
valleys as well as of the hills and mountains ; his love doth not alter
with our condition, the comfort of adoption is for such a time.
4. Because of our imperfection both in holiness and comfort, we must
submit to the authority of a father, when we cannot see our interest in
his special fatherly love. Alas ! most are so ill settled in the peace
and comfort of the gospel, that every notable affliction reviveth our
guilty fears ; as the Sareptan said to Elijah when her child died, ' Art
thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my
son ? ' 1 Kings xvii. 18. She looked upon that sad providence as a
judgment for her sins ; so it is if God awakeneth in us a spirit of bon
dage. Besides, there is none of us but may justify God, that he is not
needlessly severe ; yea, some have so sinned, that though they be not
filii irce, children of wrath, yet they are filii sub ira, children under
wrath ; though they need no regeneration or conversion, yet they have
grieved the good Spirit of God by walking inordinately, therefore their
business is to submit to the authority of God, justly correcting and
punishing them for sins : Micah vii. 9, ' I will bear the indignation of
the Lord, because I have sinned against him.' And by unfeigned
repentance to renew their claim, and promise greater loyalty and
fidelity for the future : Jer. iii. 19, ' Thou shalt call me, My father, and
shalt not turn away from me.' They must get their wounds healed,
make up the breach between God and them, sue out their pardon in
the name of Christ, and get a renewed grant of it, and a sense of their
adoption.
5. If hitherto you have been quite strangers to God, such providences
may be an occasion to begin the relation before they are over, as they
are helps to repentance and recovery. Upon the serious working of
your souls, the Lord may be found as a father, and admit you into
his family. It is said, ' The Lord loveth whom he chasteneth,' Heb.
xii. 6. There is a twofold love in God the love of benevolence, and
the love of complacency ; the one while we are sinners, the other after
he hath made us amiable. Some God chooseth in the fire or furnace
of affliction : Isa. xlviii. 10, ' Behold, I have refined thee, but not with
silver ; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction/ The hot fur
nace is God's workhouse ; the most excellent vessels of honour are
formed there ; Manasseh, Paul, the jailer in the Acts ; when the pro
digal began to be in want, he thought of returning to his father, Luke
xv. 17-19. If our ears be opened to discipline, we can own God in
the humbling, though not the comfortable way : ' Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called
thy son/ Many that were never serious before are brought to bethink
themselves in their afflictions : 1 Kings viii. 47, 48, ' Yet if they shall
bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and
repent, and make supplications unto thee in the land of them that
carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done per
versely, we have committed wickedness ; and so return unto thee with
all their heart and with all their soul/ The doors of God's family
SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11. 11
are always open to believing penitents, and it is a fatherly providence
at last.
Secondly, What an advantage is it to patience and submission to
God.
1. God's fatherly relation showeth his love to us ; and so we know
that by all his chastisements he doth but seek our spiritual and eternal
good : Heb. xii. 9, 10, ' We have had fathers of our flesh, which cor
rected us, and we gave them reverence ; shall we not much rather be
in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live ? for they verily for a
few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness.' Children, though they
take it ill to be beaten by others, yet they take it patiently when beaten
for their faults by their parents, who, under God, are the cause of their
being and maintenance, and ever in correcting seek their good ; much
more should we submit to our heavenly Father. Earthly parents may
err, wanting wisdom, or being blinded with passion, and so their chastise
ments are arbitrary and irregular ; but there is more of compassion than
passion in God's rod ; all cometh from purest love, and is regulated by
perfect wisdom, and tendeth to the highest end, even our holiness and
happiness.
2. It inferreth great love from us to God again. No owning of God
is allowed but the practical owning of him ; and therefore none own
God as a father but those that love him as a father. Now love God
once, and nothing that he doth will be grievous to us; for as love
sweeteneth duties, so it sweeteneth providences. It cometh from my
Father ; that doth not only bespeak reverence or submission (Num. xii.
14, ' If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed
seven days?') but welcome; anything should be well taken at his hand.
III. It well becometh his people to endure willingly whatever God
calleth them unto.
1. From God. His sovereignty and power ; he is too great to be
questioned : Job ix. 12, ' Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him ?
Who will say unto him, What doest thou ? ' His justice ; he is too
just to do us wrong : Job xxxiv. 23, ' For he will not lay upon man
more than is right, that he should enter into judgment with God.'
There is guilt enough in every one to silence us : Ps. cxix. 137,
' Righteous art thou, Lord, and upright are thy judgments/ His
goodness ; he is too good to do us harm ; he knoweth how to recom
pense us : Ps. cxix. VI, ' It is good for me that I have been afflicted.'
Nothing but good can come from him who is goodness and love itself.
His wisdom and faithfulness ; he will afflict us no more than need re-
quireth, or will exceed our strength : 1 Peter i. 6, ' Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season (if need be) ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations ; ' 1 Cor. x. 13, ' There hath no temptation taken
you but such as is common to man ; but God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.'
2. With respect to Christ, whose example should be of force to us
both for suffering and patience in suffering. For suffering, there is a cer
tain measure of affliction fitted and prepared for Christ and all his
12 SERMON UPON JOHN XVIIL 11.
followers ; the bitter cup goeth round from hand to hand ; the whole
wave dashed upon Christ, some drops light upon us : Col. i. 24, 'Who
now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind
of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the
church.' And for patience in suffering : Heb. xii. 2, 3, ' Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set
before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds ; ' 1 Peter ii. 21, ' Christ also suffered for us, leav
ing us an example, that ye should follow his steps ;' and ver. 23, ' Who
when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threat
ened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.'
He hath trod the way before us, and his steps drop fatness : Mat. xx.
23, ' Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the bap
tism that I am baptized with ; but to sit on my right hand, and on
my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it
is prepared of my Father.' There are two things ; if any would be
nearer in dignity to Christ than others, it is not in reigning, but in
suffering with Christ, in drinking Christ's cup ; but for preferment in
another world, and to have a larger measure of honour, that is given
to those for whom it is appointed. We are to prepare for the cross.
The other is, the new covenant engageth us hereunto, for there is an
allusion to the sacraments. Therefore Christ useth these notions.
Use 1. Showeth what provision the Christian religion maketh for
patience : Horn. xv. 4, ' For whatsoever things were written aforetime,
were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort
of the scriptures, might have hope.' This patience and comfort of the
scriptures is a higher thing than what is learnt by the institutions of
philosophy. Tarn in ipsis falsa erat patientia, qitam et falsa sapientia
Cypr. Both their patience and their wisdom is false. The grounds
of patience from the Christian religion are particular providence, adop
tion, the example of Christ, the assistance of the Spirit, the desert of
sin, the fruit of afflictions, both as to the refining of grace and prepar
ing us for glory: Heb. xii. 11, ' Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised
thereby.'
Use 2. To exhort us to bear whatsoever God shall lay upon us.
1. Seek this grace of God, both the wisdom and the power to calm
the spirit: Col. i. 11, ' Strengthened with all might according to his
glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy fulness ; '
James i. 5, ' If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask it of God.' Man's
strength is not the strength of bulls ; it doth not lie in brutish force,
but strength of reason. Our own reason is too feeble to encounter our
passions if not assisted by grace ; they are not healed by time, but
spiritual wisdom : Ps. xciv. 19, ' In the multitude of my thoughts
within me thy comforts delight my soul.'
2. Expostulate with yourselves, arid cite all your passions before the
tribunal of reason : Ps. xlii. 5, ' Why art thou cast down, my soul ?
SERMON UPON JOHN XVIII. 11. 13
why art thou disquieted within me ? ' God puts Jonah to the ques
tion : chap. iv. 4, ' Dost thou well to be angry ? ' So should we argue
with ourselves : With whom are you displeased? Is it with God? He
doth what he pleaseth ; he might cast thee into hell, and art thou
angry because of his temporal chastisement ? He hath bestowed many
mercies upon thee, and shall he not take his seasons to chastise thee ?
Art thou angry with man ? But is not God's hand in it ? Hast not
thou done so to others ? Eccles. vii. 22, ' For oftentimes also thy own
heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.'
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
Father, forgive them, for they know not u'hat they do. LUKE xxiii. 34.
THE words of the dying are wont to be much observed. When men
depart out of the body, they are usually more serious and divine, and
speak with greater weight. As a man that is to take a journey trusseth
up his bundle or fardle, so when men are to take a journey to God, and
are upon the brink of the everlasting state, they are wont to gather up
whatever is of a divine and immortal nature. Especially the speeches
of the godly dying are to be regarded, who, having laid aside worldly
affairs and earthly thoughts, are wholly exercised in the contemplation
of heavenly things. Therefore in scripture we read of David's last
words, 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, and of Joshua, chap, xxiii. 14, ' And behold,
this day I am going the way of all the earth ;' but before he goes he
would leave this testimony for God : ' Ye know in all your hearts, and
in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things
which the Lord your God spake concerning you, all are come to pass
unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.' So Jacob, Moses,
Simeon : Luke ii. 29, 30, ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart
in peace, according to thy word ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.'
Paul : 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give
me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing.' Now certainly, if any man's dying speeches are to be
observed, Christ's are much more. Job said, chap. xix. 23, 24, ' Oh,
that my words were now written ! oh, that they were printed in a book !
that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! '
It were well if Christ's words were written, not in cedar, but in our
own hearts. They reckon seven short speeches of Christ upon the
cross, and this is the first; when he begins to break off his silence, it is
to pray for his persecutors : ' Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.' In which words there is
1. Christ's request, 'Father, forgive them.'
2. The argument by which it is enforced, ' For they know not what
they do.'
I. Christ's request, ' Father, forgive them.' ' Father ' is a word of
confidence towards God and of love to his enemies ; he mentioneth
the sweetest relation. ' Father' is a word of blandishment, as children,
when they would obtain anything at their parent's hands, cry, Father 1
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 15
Some observe that when he speaketh of his own desertion he crieth,
' My God ! my God ! ' but now, when he prayeth for the pardon of
his enemies, he useth a more endearing relation, ' Father/ But the
observation is fond and nice ; for Christ in his own case useth the
same endearing title : Mat. xxvi. 39, ' my Father ! if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me ; ' and there is a special reason why in his
desertion he should say, ' My God ! my God ! ' as suiting the title to
his case, Eli ! Eli ! my strong one ! my strong one ! He wanted the
strong support and the sensible consolations of his godhead. It is most
comfortable to observe how Christ upon the cross calleth God ' Father.'
He felt him a judge, and believeth him a father. The special work of
faith in afflictions is to maintain the comfort of adoption : Heb. xii. 5,
' Ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto
children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord.' Those
that are under chastening may be sons. God doth not always put on
the person of a judge when he taketh the rod in his hand ; the change
of your condition doth not alter, nor make void your interest. God is the
God of the valleys as well as the God of the hills. Christ was now, as
a man, forsaken and rejected of God, left to the assaults of Satan and
scorns of men ; and yet in the height of his pains and passion he re-
taineth his confidence : ' Father, forgive them.' The whole world is
not worth the comfort that is wrapped up in that one word, ' Father.'
It is a great folly in the children of God to question his love merely
because of the greatness of their afflictions. "We presently cry out, as
Job, chap. xxx. 21, ' Thou art become cruel to me ; with thy strong
hand thou opposest thyself against me ; ' that he hath put off all
fatherly affection, because we judge of the cross according to the sense
of our own flesh. And therefore, merely to question God's love
because of afflictions is folly. Kather we may conclude the contrary of
the two. Bastards are left to a looser discipline than sons ; the
bramble of the wilderness is suffered to grow and spread when the
vine is cut, and pruned, and pared ; the stones that are to be set in the
building are most hewed and squared, others lie neglected in the quarry
and are left to their own roughness. Multiplied afflictions are a sign
God hath a care of you ; he will not suffer you to run wild. And
therefore, in defiance of the cross, learn to call God Father ; look
'through the cloud of the present dispensation to the love of God to
wards you.
' Father, forgive them.' Christ speaks as foreseeing the danger
and punishment which they would bring on themselves as the fruit of
their madness and folly, and therefore he prays, ' Father, forgive them.'
This act was provocation enough to move God to dissolve the bonds
of nature, to cleave the earth, that it might swallow them up quick, or
to rain hell out of heaven upon them. Lesser offences have been thus
punished, and one word from Christ's mouth had been enough. But,
' Father, forgive them.' We hear nothing but words of mild pity.
When he says, ' Forgive,' he means also convert them ; for where
there is no conversion there can be no remission.
I shall look upon this prayer under a twofold consideration
1. As an high moral act of an holy man.
2. As a taste of his mediation and intercession, where we shall con
sider the public relation he sustained upon the cross.
16 SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
First, Let us look upon it as a moral action. He doth not threaten
fearful judgments, but prayed for his enemies ; there was no stain of
passion and revenge upon his sufferings : 1 Peter ii. 21, ' Christ also
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his
steps.' And wherein ? ver. 23, ' Who when he was reviled, reviled not
again ; when he suffered, he threatened not ; but committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously.' One great use of Christ's death
was to give us lessons of meekness and patience and humble suffering.
In this act there is an excellent lesson. Let us look upon the neces
sary circumstances that serve to set it off (1.) For whom he prays ;
(2.) When he prays ; (3.) Why he prays ; (4.) In what manner.
li For whom he prayeth ; for his persecutors, men that had done
him the greatest contempt and villany which their spite and malice
could invent. They had mocked and buffeted him, mangled his flesh
with scourges, led him like a public spectacle of shame through the
streets of the city, and by importunate clamours had gotten him to the
cross, and there placed him in the midst of thieves. They had cursed
themselves, and yet Christ prayed for them. In their rage they had
even appealed to and dared divine justice : ' His blood be upon us and
on our children ; ' but Christ saith, ' Father, forgive them.' Yea, and
which is more, they did all this to him when he came to serve the
world in a design of the greatest love. Of all things, men cannot
endure to have their love slighted. Holy David, when Nabal slighted
his kindness, vowed the destruction of him and all his house ; but
when Christ cometh with higher acts of kindness, he is despised and
rejected of men : ' He .came unto his own, and his own received him
not,' John i. 11. Nay, his own persecuted him, and despitefully used
him, and yet he prayeth for them. They omitted no kind of cruelty. The
law saith, ' Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,' Lev. xxiv.
20 ; but when they cry, ' Crucify him,' he cries, ' Forgive them.' Oh,
how may we wonder at this, who are so vindictive as we are 1
2. When he prayeth; in the very extremity and height of his
sufferings. Then, when we are apt to forget our friends, Christ
remembereth his enemies ; in the very height of his sorrows he mediates
for a pardon for them. A man would have thought that the sharp
sense of the afflictions wherewith he was exercised should have em
bittered his spirit; if he would make intercession for sinners in
heaven, a man would have thought that he should not have interceded
upon the cross. We pardon when the misery is over, and, by the
course of affairs, that which was intended for a mischief proveth an
advantage ; as Joseph did his brethren : Gen. 1. 20, ' As for you, ye
thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass
as it is this day, to save much people alive.' But Christ in the very
act of his sufferings seeketh mercy for the instruments of his passion.
Pendebat, et tamen petebat, saith Austin ; their rage had brought him
to the cross, and there Christ mediateth to bring them to heaven.
3. Who prayeth ; Jesus Christ. With honour enough to himself
he might have done otherwise; he could have destroyed them with the
breath of his mouth or with a beam of his glory. We forgive when
we cannot harm. Power efferateth the mind, and makes men fierce
and cruel. Many would be cruel enough, but they are restrained
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 17
either by want of power or opportunity. But here neither was want
ing : Mat. xxvi. 53, ' Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray unto my
Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of
angels ? ' In man's eye that would have seemed a rare vindication of
the glory and dignity of his person ; but Christ doth not pray, Father,
send twelve legions of angels, but, ' Father, forgive them.' One angel
had been enough : 2 Kings xix. 35, ' The angel of the Lord went out,
and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and
five thousand.' It would have been more easy for Christ to come
down from the cross than to go up thither, that was the greater
miracle. Four nails could not have held the Lord of glory, if he had
not been nailed and fastened through by his own love and voluntary
condescension. But Christ would not be glorious now in acts of power,
but of mildness and charity, and therefore it is not, Father, destroy,
but, Father, forgive them.
4. How he prayeth for them. He pleadeth their case, and putteth
the fairest construction that can be made of an action so foul and
enormous ; they are poor ignorant people, led with a blind zeal. Christ
pitcheth upon the only circumstance that serveth to lessen the offence ;
of all excuses this is the most plausible: 1 Tim. i. 13, 'I obtained
mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief ; ' Acts iii. 17, ' And
now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your
rulers.' We are wont to strain and force actions to the most rigorous
interpretation they are capable of. Iracundia solers estfingendi causas
suifuroris Seneca. Anger is witty to find out causes to justify itself ;
and if there be aught to justify censure, we omit those alleviating cir
cumstances and necessary mitigations, whereby our asperity may be
taken off, and actions be more mildly considered. But Christ saith,
Poor creatures ! they act out of a blind zeal, they know not what they
do ; Father, forgive them.
Use 1. Information.
1. It informeth us that the love of Christ is greater than we can
think or understand, much less express. If we be afflicted with any
pain in the teeth, head, or eyes, we are so overcome with the sense of it,
that we can think of nothing else ; we neither admit the visit of friends,
nor will we trouble ourselves with any business, our pain wholly engros-
-seth and taketh up our minds and thoughts. But Jesus Christ, in the
midst of his agonies and painful sufferings, remembereth not only
friends, but enemies, and is solicitous about their salvation. Now if he
be thus affected towards persecutors, how is he to the persecuted ? They
cry, 'Crucify him ! crucify him ! ' but he saith, ' Father, forgive them.'
He might justly have called for vengeance, but he prayeth for mercy ;
nothing was so cruel but they were ready to think, and speak, and do
against him in this blind and inconsiderate fury ; but he doth not con
sider their injuries against himself, but their sin against God, and would
have that pardoned ; and this at the time when they sought not pardon
for themselves, but were venting their malice against him. Which
surely is an encouragement to the penitent that he will not be hard to
be entreated by them that confess and forsake their sins, and fly unto
him for mercy. He seeks for pardon for them that sought it not, and
considereth not so much what they deserved, as what became himself,
VOL. xix. B
18 SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
and the riches of his grace. They curse, and he blesseth ; they
vomit out scorns and slanders, but he poureth out prayers to God for
them.
2. That all sins, even the greatest, except that against the Holy
Ghost, are pardonable. What greater sin could there be than crucify
ing the Lord of glory ? yet upon repentance it is forgiven. That it was
capable of pardon appeareth by this prayer of our Saviour, and that
it was actually pardoned appeareth by Acts ii. When they were
touched to the quick with the sense of this crime, and asked what
they should do, Peter adviseth them to this remedy, Acts ii. 38, 'Kepent,
and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the
remission of sins ; ' and they found it effectual upon the use of it : ver.
41, ' Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the
same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.' And
that it is so in the general case, our Lord assureth us, Mat. xii. 31, 'All
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.'
There is no exception of any sin, though it go so high as blasphemy, but
the malicious blaspheming the operations of the Holy Ghost, those by
which he testified, manifestly and sufficiently, that he was the true
Messiah, and their imputing these operations to the devil. But of other
sins there is no exception ; speaking against the Son of man was not
believing him to be the Messiah ; that may be forgiven ; but blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost is resisting his manifestations, affirming them
to be done by the devil rather than God, and this shall never be for
given. Well, then, let us conceive of God's mercy according to the
infiniteness of his nature, and of Christ's merits according to the
dignity of his person ; an ocean of water will wash one sink or filthy
hole clean.
3. That remission of sins is the free gift of God, and the fruit of his
pity and grace. Christ asketh it of his Father, ' Father, forgive them : '
he must be sought to ; we cannot merit it of ourselves. David addres-
seth himself to God, and useth no other plea but grace and mercy : Ps.
Ii. 1, ' Have mercy upon me, God, according to thy loving-kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my
transgressions.' Our work lieth with the Father of mercies and the
God of all compassions, that he may be reconciled to us, and seal up
his perfect pardon to our souls.
4. That pardon of sins is a special benefit. Christ asked no more
than, Father, forgive them. It is a special benefit, because it freeth
us from the greatest evil, wrath to come : 1 Thes. i. 10, ' And it maketh
us capable of the greatest blessing, eternal life : Titus iii. 7, ' That
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. It is purchased at the dearest rate, even the
blood of Christ : Kom. iii. 25, ' Whom God hath set forth to be a pro
pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.'
It is brought about by the highest power, the finger of God, or his
all-conquering Spirit, who by converting us, or giving us repentance,
maketh us capable of pardon : Acts ii. 38, ' Repent and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins ;'
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 19
Acts v. 31, ' Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince
and a saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.'
It openeth the door to the choicest privileges, the favour of God and
communion with him in the Spirit ; therefore David pronounce th the
pardoned hlessed : Ps. xxxii. 1, 2, ' Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered ; blessed is the man unto whom the
Lord imputeth no iniquity/
5. That love of enemies, and those that have wronged us, is an high
grace, and recommended to us by Christ's own example. Sure it is
needful that we should learn this lesson, to be like God : Luke vi. 36,
' Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful ; ' that we may obey
God, who hath required this at our hands. Therefore we must con
sider not what others have been to us, but what God will have us to
be to them, meek, patient, and merciful. Again, we hereby show the
purity and sincerity of our love ; nature will teach us to love those
that love us, but grace only teacheth us to love enemies. This is love
with self-denial. They who love us endear themselves to us, the other
alienate themselves from us ; yet for God's sake we can love them, and
seek to draw them out of the snares of the devil, that we may restore
them to God.
Use 2. Keproof of those that are cruel and revengeful. How differ
ent are they from Christ who are all for unkindness and revenge, and
solicit vengeance against God's suffering servants with eager aggrava
tions ! Oh, how can these men look upon Christ's practice without
shame ! How can they look upon these prodigies of love and grace,
and not blush ! Can there be a greater crime and wrong done to any
than was done to Christ ? And yet when he was whipped, crowned
with thorns, pierced with nails, lifted up upon the cross, he doth not
pray for revenge, but pardon ; he doth not cry, Justice ! justice ! but
Mercy ! mercy ! ' Father, forgive them ; ' he doth not by captious queries
and expostulations aggravate the offence, but he alleviates it by a sweet
interpretation, 'They know not what they do.' It is strange to think what
bloody principles many Christians have espoused of late ; that we rage
against our brethren upon every offence, especially in matters of doubt
ful apprehension, where men are more liable to mistakes. Oh ! it is
sad, when God is but a little displeased, to help onward the affliction. I
wonder where men learn that cruel and fell spirit into which we are com
menced of late ; it was wont to be good doctrine, 'Be merciful, as your
heavenly Father is merciful.' What is become of all those good lectures
of charity, and meekness, and gentleness, which are commended to us in,
the rule of the gospel and the example of Christ? Certainly when the
spirit is exulcerated it argues some loss of peace with God. David was
never more cruel than when he had violated the peace of his own con
science : 2 Sam. xii. 31 , ' And he brought forth the people that were
therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under
axes of iron, and made them to pass through the brickkiln.' Certainly
latters are not right between us and God when men's principles and
practices grow bloody and cruel.
Use 3. To exhort us to imitate Christ in being meek, patient,
merciful, void of malice, doing good for evil, bearing the worst usage
without studying revenge. Surely the same mind should be in us that
20 SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
was in Christ Jesus. Head and members are acted by the same soul ;
so in the mystical body, Christ and we should be acted with the same spirit;
the same spirit of holy love, sweetness, and forgiveness that breathed in
Christ should breathe forth in our lives and conversations : Eph. iv. 32,
' And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' All his ordinances
imply this. In the word we hear of Christ's meekness ; his pattern is
set forth that we might be like-minded ; in prayer we are taught to say,
' Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.'
We break our sponsion and promise solemnly given in this petition if
we do not pardon others. In baptism, ' we put on Christ,' Rom. xiii.
14 ; we put on his nature and qualities, that is, planting us into his
likeness. In the Lord's supper we come to renew our union and com
munion with him, and to liken ourselves to Christ yet more and more.
Christ changeth the temper of those that spiritually feed upon him, as
natural meats communicate their qualities to us. The Israelites were
more generous because they were so long fed with manna ; Nero was more
bloody because he sucked the milk of a cruel nurse, who was wont to
besmear her dugs with blood ; Achilles was more valiant because he
was nourished with the marrow of lions. Men's dispositions are much
according to their food ; certainly those that eat the Lamb should not
be wolves, but meek as Christ was, and ready to forgive, and every way
transcribe their master's pattern. See how Stephen imitates his
master when he comes to die. First he prayeth for himself : Acts vii.
59, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ; ' as Christ did, Luke xxiii. 46,
' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ; ' and then he intercedeth
for his enemies : Acts vii. 60, ' Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.'
Here is not only an example of faith ; he committed his soul to Christ,
but of charity, he deprecateth revenge from his enemies. Moses and
other holy ones of God have done so. Moses : Num. xii. 13, ' Heal her
now, Lord, I beseech thee ; ' when his sister Miriam was smitten with
a leprosy for doing him wrong. Aaron, when he was despitefully used,
and his calling maligned : Num. xvi. 47, 48, ' He ran into the midst of
the people, and behold the plague was begun among the people ; and
he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people ; and he stood
between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.' David
fasted for his enemies when they were sick : Ps. xxxv. 13, ' But as for
me, when they were sick my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my
soul with fasting.' We fast against them often, but seldom fast for
them. So Paul : 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13, ' Being reviled, we bless ; being
persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat.' When we are
looked upon and treated as evil-doers, we should bear it patiently, not
rage against instruments, but pray the Lord to open their eyes, that
they may see the greatness of their sin, in hating and opposing the godly.
You should not think the example of Christ an act beyond imitation.
You see the holy men of God have attained a great measure of self-
denial ; do you go and do likewise.
1. In private cases. A man shall meet with offences in the world.
All men have not faith; some are absurd and injurious. What a
comfort would a man have in his spirit when he can pity their blind
ness and pardon their malice. They took away the life of Christ, and
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 21
yet he saith, 'Father, forgive them ;' he was slain by them, and yet
he prayeth for them. Certainly it is not comely for us to retaliate, to
hate, curse, revile, and pursue injury with injury. They that revenge
take an example from their enemies, and do them this honour to make
them their own pattern ; and what comfort can any have to make a
wicked man his precedent ! Besides, to revenge is to rush into God's
tribunal, and to take his work out of his hands: Prov. xxiv. 29,
' Say not, I will do to him as he hath to me ; I will render to the
man according to his work.' Solomon putteth it into such words as
are proper to God, that we may be sensible of the pride and usurpation
that is in revenge: and, Rom. xii. 19, 'Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath ; for it is written, Vengeance
is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord.' We take upon us to be
rewarders when at least we should leave the case to God. You may
put it into the hands of the righteous judge: 1 Peter ii. 23, ' When,
he was reviled, he reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.' Besides,
it will much interrupt your prayers. Our revengeful dispositions must
needs weaken our confidence, for we muse of others as we use ourselves.
How can you say, ' Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that
trespass against us,' when we are like vessels broken as soon as touched,
and are furious and raging upon every wrong, and the least offence done
to us ? Alas ! their offences to us are nothing like ours to God, either
for number or weight. Not for number ; no man can wrong us so
much as we daily trespass against God. How many neglects and
affronts doth mercy put up at our hands every day ! Luke xvii. 4, ' If
he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a
day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.'
Seventy times seven is a number too little for the transgressions and
offences of one day, and yet we grow peevish and passionate upon
every slight fault or wrong done to us. So for the weight ; the
naughty servant would not forgive a hundred pence when his master
forgave him ten thousand talents, Mat. xviii. 24, compared with the 28th.
verse. There is a great difference between pence and talents ; the Roman
penny was sevenpence halfpenny, and their talent was one hundred and
eighty-seven pounds ten shillings. Their offences cannot be so heinous
as ours, because of our great obligations to God, and the dignity of his
essence ; theirs are against dust and ashes, their guilty fellow-creatures ;
ours are against the great God. It is proper to Christians, that know such
an infinite pardoning mercy, to do something above heathens and
publicans : Mat. v. 46, ' If ye love them which love you, what reward
have ye? do not even the publicans so?' Christianity should raise
the affections to a greater self-denial, so that we are to love our very
enemies. Besides all this, consider the benefit of a meek patience.
Revenge is sweet, but you will find more pleasure in meekness. All
vexations disturb the peace and quiet of the soul, and I cannot do my
enemy a greater pleasure than to let him take away my contentment,
and, when I am wronged by others, to wrong myself. Will you hurt
yourself by passion and sin because others hurt you by slanders and
persecutions ? He that will not forgive hurts himself more than, he
that doeth the wrong ; for the injury offered reacheth but to the name,
22 SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
body, or goods, but the desire of revenge wounds the conscience, and
provokes God to wrath, and shuts the gate of his mercy against us.
The great motive that excites the devil to molest and disturb us by his
instruments is not to hurt your bodies, but to tempt your souls to
impatience and revenge, and to draw you to other sins ; and therefore
you do not conquer it as a temptation till you avoid the sin. Job was
robbed and plundered, but in all this Job sinned not ; to come off with
a wounded conscience, this is to be foiled indeed. Besides, conscience
will take hold of all revengeful acts. David's heart smote him when he
cut off the lap of Saul's garment. Besides, consider the gain of others.
Saul wept when he saw David's tenderness: 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, 'And it
came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words
unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David ? And
Saul lift up his voice and wept.' Tenderness is expressed by heaping
up coals upon your enemy's head : Prov. xxv. 21, 22, ' If thine enemy
be hungry, give him bread to eat ; and if he be thirsty, give him water
to drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.' You may make
him pliable to your purpose, as lead or wax melted by fire. Such
charity doth often procure servants to God and friends to ourselves.
It is indeed said there, ' and the Lord shall reward thee.' There
are indeed some sour and crabbed pieces that will never be smoother,
but if distorted and depraved natures are not won, God will reward thee.
Endeavours of reconciliation are not lost with God ; though you get
nothing but scorn and contempt, you may comfort yourselves with your
;sincerity, and God will not be wanting. Besides all this, consider the
"honour of being above an injury : Prov. xix. 11, ' The discretion of a
man deferreth his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.'
As it is the glory of God to pardon sin ; we think it a disgrace ; but
the Holy Ghost tells us it is the glory of a man. It is the devil's
design to suffer the world to miscall grace ; meekness is sheepishness,
.and patience is a kind of weakness and servility ; an argument ignavi
ingenii, of a slow dull temper, that hath no sense of things ; as astro
nomers call glorious stars dogs and bears and dragons' tails. Oh,
consider this is an height proper to Christianity ! nature could not reach
it ; there is no greater servility than to be a slave to one's passions :
Ezek. xvi. 30, ' How weak is thy heart, saith the Lord, since thou doest
all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman ? ' There
are no spirits so feeble as those that are swayed by the ruffle of their
own passions.
2. In public cases. In these times of mutual provocation we are
apt to return evil for evil and word for word, and to curse and pray
against one another ; but we should labour to return good for evil, for
injury doth not justify revenge. Keligious quarrels are usually carried
on with great hatred and animosity, for then religion feedeth the excess
of passion, and instead of being a judge, becometh a party, and that which
should be a restraint proveth fuel. The quarrel between Christ and
his persecutors was a quarrel of religion, and yet he prays, ' Father,
forgive them ; ' and if Christ did thus, why should not Christians ?
Oh ! consider it (1.) As to open enemies ; (2.) As to the undue
carriage of brethren.
[1.] As to open enemies. Christ saith, Mat. v. 44, 'Love your
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 23
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.' Lest we
should excuse ourselves by a colour and show of religion, and so give
indulgence to the exorbitancy of our passions, Christ names 'persecutors,'
that are not only our enemies, but God's enemies ; you are to pray for
them, and wish them conviction of sin and reformation. And you see
how Christ practiseth his own doctrine, and so taught us not only
living, but dying. These were carried on by a blind zeal ; alas ! that
they have no more light nor better principles. I doubt in all our divi
sions we have not plied this way of love ; if we did, they would be
goon cured and healed. We pray one against another, and seek each
other's ruin and destruction, but when have we commended our enemies
to God's grace and pity ? And after all, we are apt to baptize our
sufferings, which have been the effects of our pride and passion, with
the glorious name of persecution, and that exasperateth our spirits, and
we think it is but a duty to call for fire from heaven. We know not
what manner of spirits we are of. An angry zeal hath the less of God
in it, because it is so hastily kindled and so hardly suppressed.
[2.] As to undue carriage of brethren : James v. 10, ' Grudge not
one against another, brethren ; ' prj <rrei>aeTe, groan not. When they
should commend each other to the grace of God, they groan one against
another, We should willingly bury the remembrance of their injuries.
There cannot be unity, sympathy, brotherly love amongst the Lord's
people, unless there be a heart to pity the infirmities of one another,
and a proneness of spirit to do good contrary to what they deserve at
our hands.
Quest. But is it not lawful to pray for revenge ? Zechariah, when
he was stoned between the temple and the altar, said, ' The Lord look
upon it and require it/ 2 Chron. xxiv. 22 ; and David in the psalms
prays that God would not pardon his enemies.
Ans. We cannot always imitate what the prophet did, who could
know by special revelation who had sinned unto death, and therefore
cannot use these imprecations unless conditionally. Their curses were
predictions, and uttered by the spirit of prophecy, not by any private
spirit. Meek and humble addresses to God, and wrestling for their
good, suit better with us and the example of Jesus Christ : 1 Peter
iii. 9, ' Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise
blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a
blessing.' It is more suitable to Christianity to wish good to them that
curse and injure you. If you will not imitate Christ, you are none of his
disciples, nor will he be your Saviour, nor must you think to live and
reign with him in heaven. You must overcome yourself, and corrupt
nature, that thirsteth after revenge : Prov. xvi. 32, ' He that is slow to
anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he
that taketh a city.' Overcome and shame the party that doeth the
wrong : 1 Sam. xxiv. 17, ' And he said to David, Thou art more
righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have
rewarded thee evil.' Look upon them as objects of pity and compas
sion rather than of passion and anger: Eph. i. 32, 'Be ye kind one
to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' Consider what God hath done to
you that you may do the same to them.
24 SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
Secondly, The next consideration of this prayer of Christ is as a
taste and pledge of his mediation and intercession. So it is prophesied,
Isa. liii. 12, ' He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the
ein of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.' Christ was
placed in the midst of thieves, as the first clause is explained, Mark
xv. 28 ; and he made intercession, that is, prayed for his persecutors.
The whole chapter is a prophetical narration of the acts and sorrows
of Christ upon the cross. In this public sense and consideration, let
us see what may be gathered out of the clause, ' Father, forgive them.'
1. It is an instance of Christ's love and bowels to sinners ; he loved
mankind so well that he prayed for them that crucified him. Look on the
Lord Jesus as praying and dying for enemies, and improve it as a ground
of confidence. Upon the cross he would give us an instance of his
efficacy in converting the thief, and of his affection in praying for his
persecutors. We were as great enemies to Christ, and as deep in the
guilt of his passion, as they : Horn. v. 10, ' When we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.' The enemies of his
kingdom are every way as bad as the enemies of his person. If Christ
did not say, ' Father, forgive/ what would become of us ? You will
say, We are Christians ; but scandalous sinners renew his sufferings,
and ' put him to an open shame,' Heb. vi. 6. Oh, let us adore God
for these experiences ! It is a mighty ground of hope that Christ hath
put in for a pardon ; he would not die till he had expressed his recon
ciliation with his enemies.
2. See what is the voice and merit of his sufferings, ' Father, forgive
them.' This is the speech that Christ uttered when he was laid on
the cross. The apostle compareth Christ's blood and the blood of
Abel : Heb. xii. 24, ' And to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh,
better things than the blood of Abel.' Abel's blood was clam
orous in the ears of God : Gen. iv. 10, ' The voice of thy brother's
blood crieth to me from the ground ; ' and so in the conscience of Cain
it crieth, Avenge I avenge me ! Christ's blood hath another voice, it
speaketh to God to pacify his wrath, and to pardon us, if penitent and
believing sinners ; it speaketh to conscience to be quiet, God hath
found out a ransom. The blood of Christ may speak against us as
well as against the Jews, for by our sins we made Christ to die. Oh,
be not quiet till it speak peace in your consciences. Christ's blood was
spilt in malice, as Abel's was, and might have cried for vengeance on
the actors, who were not only the Jews, but we, and it yet speaketh as
Abel's did : Heb. xi. 4, ' By it he, being dead, yet speaketh.' It is a
speaking blood, and is yet speaking. The speaking of the blood is
interpreted according to the words in their mouth wherewith! they died :
Mat. xxiii. 35, ' That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed
upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of
Zecharias the son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the porch and
the altar.' Our Lord gathers it from Zecharias' saying, ' The Lord
look upon it and require it,' 2 Chron. xxiv. 22. So the words of Christ
interpret his death.
3. In the mediatory consideration it hinteth the coupling of his
intercession with his satisfaction.. On the cross, there he dieth and
there he prayeth ; he was both priest and sacrifice. The high priest
under the law was not only to slay the sacrifice, but to intercede for the
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 25
people ; first the beast was slain without the camp, and then the blood
was carried into the holy of holies, and there prayer was made with
incense ; but before that, Aaron, when he was going into the holy
place before the Lord, was to cause the sound of his golden bells to be
heard under pain of death, Exod. xxviii. 35. To this I parallel this action
of Christ upon the cross. This prayer was as the sound of the golden
bells ; he would make his voice to be heard by prayer, and then he goes
into the holy of holies ; the Lord Jesus Christ, when he shed his blood
before the tribunal of God, he sendeth forth a prayer. God would
have our salvation carried on in a way of mercy and justice, and Christ
was to mingle entreaty with satisfaction ; as, Lev. xvi. 14, the high
priest was to bring the blood within the veil, and to sprinkle it upon
the mercy-seat. He must satisfy justice and make an address to mercy,
that we that have sinned with both hands may take hold of God with
both hands : Bom. iii. 24, ' Being justified freely by his grace, through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ;' it is ' freely/ and yet ' through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ ; ' these two sweetly accord.
4. This is a pledge of his constant intercession in heaven. The
ceremonies of the old law were not only types of Christ, but his visible
actions were a kind of types and pledges of his spiritual actions,
1 John ii. 1, ' If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.' He that could pray for enemies will pray
for friends, and he that got our pardon by his intercession will promote
our salvation. Certainly Christ's glorified soul loseth no affection ; he
is as earnest with the Father for his friends as ever he was upon the
cross for his persecutors : Heb. ix. 24, ' For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.'
Christ doth appear as our advocate in court, not only in our name, but
in our stead.
5. It shows the nature of his intercession. It not only implies the
everlastingness of his merit, that his blood doth continue to deserve
such things at the hands of God as we stand in need of, but it is a
continual representation of his merit ; it is not a metaphor, but a
solemn act of his priesthood. Again, it is not by verbal expressions,
such as he used hereupon earth, ' Father, forgive them ; ' his became
the state of his humiliation ; but now he intercedes non voce, sed
miseratione, not by voice, but by pity. What is it then ? Partly his
appearing in heaven as God in our nature : Heb. ix. 24, ' Christ is not
entered into the holy places made with hands,' &c., ' but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' He is said to
appear before God for us, as the high priest came and presented him
self before God with the names of the twelve tribes engraven on his
breastplate. Partly in his expressing an actual willingness, or the
desires of his holy soul concerning our salvation : John xvii. 24, ' Father,
I will that those whom thou hast given me may be with me where I
am;' and so he appears in our names, as well as in our nature.
Partly by some acts of adoration of the sovereign majesty of God ; some
address to God there is : John xiv. 16, ' I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.'
He doth not only ask the enlargement of his own kingdom : Ps. ii. 8,
26 SERMON UPON UJKE XXIII. 34.
'Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession ; ' but the pardon,
comfort, peace, and supply of particular persons : 1 John ii. 1, ' If any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous.' Partly in his presenting our prayers and supplications :
Kev. viii. 3, ' And another angel came and stood at the altar, having
a golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense, that he
should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar
which was before the throne ; ' and therefore he is called ' a minister of
the sanctuary,' Heb. viii. 2. This is the nature of Christ's intercession.
6. The success of Christ's intercession, ' Father, forgive them.' Was
he heard in this ? Yes ; this prayer converts the centurion, and those,
Acts ii. 41, above 'three thousand,' and presently after five thousand
more, Acts iv. 4. In the compass of a few days above eight thousand
of his enemies were converted. Christ is good at interceding ; his
prayers are always heard : John xi. 42, ' I knew that thou hearest me
always.' And therefore let us seek no other mediator ; God cannot
deny his own Son. Jesus Christ the righteous intercedes for us ; let
us put all our requests into his hands.
II. I come now to the argument used, ' They know not what they do.'
But you will say, Christ elsewhere complaineth of his enemies, that they
know him, and refused him out of malice : John xv. 24, ' Now they have
both seen and hated both me and my Father ; ' and therefore he saitli,
they had no cloak for their sin, but were utterly without excuse, for they
could not plead ignorance.
Ans. 1. This is not spoken of all, but of some only. The greatest
part were moved with the command, authority, and persuasion of the
priests, or blinded with a false zeal to preserve their old religion, and so
thought they did God service in crucifying Christ. Those that sinned
out of malice, Christ had told them their doom before : Mat. xii. 32,
' Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come/
2. They knew him to be a just man, though they knew him not to
be the Lord of glory, and that he did many signs which the prophets
foretold should be done by the Messias ; and therefore at least that he
was a great prophet, and as such they should have reverenced and
received him, so that they had the less cloak for their sin.
3. Christ excused not a toto, but a tanto, not altogether, but only
showeth that they were capable of pardon because of their ignorance.
Christ excuseth the sin of his enemies in that manner that he could
excuse them ; he could not altogether excuse the injustice of Pilate, nor
the cruelty of the soldiers, nor the envy of the chief priests, nor the folly
and unthankfulness of the people, nor the perjury of the false witnesses ;
all that he could plead was some ignorance of the dignity of his person:
1 Cor. ii. 8, ' Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' The chief
men of the Jews did not understand the mystery of redemption, and
many were ignorant, not only of the divinity of Christ, but his innocency
also : ' They know not what they do.'
Doct. There is a difference between sinners, and it is a more danger
ous thing to sin against knowledge than out of ignorance.
SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34. 27
1. Some sin wittingly and wilfully, as Cain, Saul, Judas, &c., who
against the apparent light of their consciences venture upon the foulest
actions.
2. Others sin out of ignorance ; either they do not certainly know what
they do to be sin, or do not expressly consider it. So Paul in persecut
ing the church of God : 1 Tim. i. 13, ' Who was before a persecutor,
and a blasphemer, and injurious ; but I obtained mercy, because I did
it ignorantly, in unbelief.'
3. Some sin knowingly indeed, but out of infirmity, either arising
from some great fear of danger and present death, as Peter denied his
master ; it is done with a troubled mind : these may be recovered to
God, but with difficulty. Or else they are hurried to evil by the baits
of the flesh, and pleasing temptations : James i. 12, ' Every man is
tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.' Now
their case cannot easily be spoken to, for it needs much discussion. It
may be by surprisal, and that for one act, and none of the grossest : Gal.
vi. 1, ' Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye that are spiritual
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.' The devil many times
leaveth no time for deliberation, and bringeth his tempting baits not to
the fore-door of reason, but to the back-door of sensual appetite, which
being in a rage, blindeth the mind. But if they sin with a strong will,
their case is more dangerous ; especially if they live and lie in sin after
many experiences of the evil of it, their condition is deplorable.
This foundation being laid, let us see how far ignorance excuseth
from sin.
[1.] Whatever sin we commit, it is sin, and of itself deserveth dam
nation. Sin is not determined to be sin by its being voluntary or
involuntary, but by its contrariety to the law of God : 1 John iii. 4,
' Sin is the transgression of the law.' Therefore the causal particle
for in the text doth not show the reason of pardon, but the capable-
ness of pardon. So Paul's ignorance was not the cause of God's mercy,
for sin cannot be the cause of mercy, but only the occasion of it. The
nature of sin is not determined by the voluntariness of it, but only the
degree of it.
[2.] Ignorance is either antecedent, concomitant, or consequent.
(1.) Antecedent, going before the act, as in the generality of the
Jews : Acts iii. 17, 'And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance
ye did it, as did also your rulers.' Out of ignorance and blind zeal
they crucified him whom God did make both Lord and Christ.
(2.) Concomitant. A man hath knowledge, but useth it not for the
present. It is one thing to sin with knowledge, and another thing to
sin against knowledge ; he that hath knowledge, but for the present
may be blinded by his lusts and carnal affections, sinneth not against
knowledge directly, but collaterally only, as he that stealeth or com-
mitteth adultery doth not this for sin's sake (for none can will evil as
evil), but he only attendeth to the profit and pleasure that is in adultery
and theft, but shutteth the eyes of his mind against the filthiness or
injustice that is in it ; and therefore he is like a man that leapeth from
an high place into the water, who first shutteth his eyes, and then
casts himself into the flood or stream.
(3.) Consequent ignorance is after the sin or act of the will, either
28 SERMON UPON LUKE XXIII. 34.
from the depraved disposition of the will : John iii. 20, ' For every
one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved;' or from the just judgment of God:
John ix. 39, ' For judgment I am come into the world, that they
which see not might see, and that they which see might be made
blind.' God inflicts a judicial blindness on men that will not obey
the truth.
[3.] Ignorance is either invincible or vincible.
(1.) Invincible ignorance is when there is not sufficient revelation,
when it is a thing we should know, but God hath not brought light
among us. Thus the heathens are punished for not glorifying God,
whom they knew by the light of nature : Rom. i. 21, ' When they
knew God, they glorified him not as God ; ' not because they believed
not in Christ, for he was not revealed unto them ; but Christians shall
be punished for not obeying the gospel : 2 Thes. i. 8, ' In flaming fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
(2.) Vincible ignorance is when there are plentiful means and great
helps to overcome it ; then is our ignorance more culpable. This ia
seen when either ignorance is voluntary and pertinacious, or when
there is gross negligence. When it is voluntary : 2 Peter iii. 5, ' For
this they are willingly ignorant of.' That they may sin more freely
and securely, they will not know what may disturb or trouble their
sleep in sin : Job xxi. 14, ' Therefore they say unto God, Depart from
us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.' The psalmist says
of them, Ps. xcv. 10, 'It is a people that do err in their hearts;
they have not known my ways.' They err in their hearts as well as
in their minds ; when they do not desire to know what they should
know, this ignorance is voluntary. Or else it is bewrayed by gross
negligence, when a man doeth a thing that, if he were not grossly
negligent, he might know to be sin : Eph. iii. 15-17, ' See then that
ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise ; redeeming the time,
because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but under
standing what the will of the Lord is.' A Christian is bound to use
all holy means to know all things that belong to his duty, and must
bestow much time and diligence upon it. If he is grossly ignorant, it
is a sign he hath a mind to put a cheat upon his soul.
Use. Let us beware of sin against knowledge ; these sins, of all
others, are the most dangerous, whether they be sins of omission ; to
omit duties that we know to be duties, this is very dangerous : James
iv. 17, ' Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not,
to him it is sin ; ' or sins of commission, to commit sins that we know
to be sins : Rom. ii. 21, 22, ' Thou therefore which teachest another,
teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not
steal, dost thou steal ? Thou that sayest a man should not commit
adultery, dost thou commit adultery ? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost
thou commit sacrilege ? ' To commit sins that we know to be sins is
to involve ourselves in wrath and vengeance. Have a care then of
these sins ; if you are guilty of them, it cannot be pleaded for you,
' Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do.'
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
He said, It is finished; and he bowed his head, and gave up the
ghost. JOHN xix. 30.
THIS is one of the seven words which Christ uttered upon the cross,
the last save one ; for before his bowing of the head, and giving up
the ghost, those words must come in which are mentioned Luke xxiii.
46, ' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ; and having said
thus, he gave up the ghost.'
To make way for these words, we need go no further back than the
28th verse. It is said there, ' After this Jesus, knowing that all
things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
said, I thirst ; ' where we may observe
1. The exact knowledge which Christ had of all his sufferings :
' He knew that all things were accomplished ; ' namely, all the
preparative sufferings which were to usher in his death. All these
bitter sorrows were numbered out to him by the divine decrees, and
pre-signified in the prophecies ; Jesus knew all the exact tale and
account of them ; a circumstance that doth much commend his love
to us. Christ knew how dear the bargain of souls would be to him,
and yet he would show his obedience to the Father and his love to
mankind. He long since sat down and counted the charges, and
yet he came to do his Father's will. When a business proveth
hazardous and inconvenient, we are apt to say, If I had known it
would have cost me so much, I should never have undertaken it.
Christ went not to the cross blindfold ; he knew the work of our
redemption would be troublesome and painful ; that he was to give
his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to the nippers ; that he was to
be hurried from the garden to the courts of men, from the courts of
men to the cross, and there to endure acute pains and torments : Jesus
knew that all these things were to be fulfilled.
2. Observe, it is said he knew 'they were accomplished/ Christ
had a lively feeling of every part of his sorrows, and his senses re
mained in full vigour to the last, and without any stupefaction. He
knew what hour the clock of the divine decree would next strike, or
what was the next circumstance whereby he was to discover himself to
be the true Messiah. David saith, 'Died Abner as a fool dieth?'
2 Sam. iii. 32. We may say so, Died the Lord Jesus as a fool dieth,
in a stupid senseless way, or as one merely passive ? Extremity of
pain had now surprised the thieves which were crucified with him ; we
30 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
hear no more of them ; but Christ's reason and senses are still exer
cised, and his sorrows made more active by his own apprehension.
3. Observe, ' That the scriptures might be fulfilled, he said, I thirst.'
By fulfilling another prophecy God discovereth another note whereby
the Messiah might be known. All the passages of Christ's death were
appointed with infinite wisdom and love ; either they were such as
were necessary parts of redemption, or some indications whereby the
Messiah fore-prophesied of might be discovered. Here is another
prophecy fulfilled in Christ's thirst. The prophecies alluded to are
two : one is Ps. xxii. 15, ' My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws ; thou hast brought me to the
dust of death.' The other prophecy hinteth the act of the Jewish
malice : Ps. Ixix. 21, ' They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my
thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.' Here was light enough, or
conviction sufficient for any but those who resolved to shut their eyes.
4. He said, ' I thirst.' He had spent much time in watching, lost
much blood, his body was tortured with extreme pain, and his soul
scorched with a sense of God's wrath ; and therefore well might he cry
out, ' I thirst.' It is notable that Christ would not declare his thirst
till he knew that all things were accomplished; that is, every sad
accident except his death. Certainly if we consider the agonies of the
garden, where he excerned blood instead of sweat, his scourging, his
being buffeted with the soldiers, his bearing the cross, all this might
make him thirst before ; but when wine mingled with myrrh, a stupe
fying potion, was tendered to him before, he refused it : Mark xv. 23,
' And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he re
ceived it not.' But now, when all was accomplished, he saith, ' I
thirst/ He would take no natural refreshment till he had borne all
our griefs and sorrows, and every sad passage by which he might
promote our comfort was accomplished. He was so mindful of us
that he forgot himself. He saith that it was meat to him to do his
Father's will : John iv. 34, ' My meat is to do the will of him that sent
me, and to finish his work.' Though the cross-work was sad work,
yet that was as drink to Christ. After he had sweltered under the
torment of so many hours' drouth, he crieth out, ' I thirst.' Christ
would make his sufferings as full of merit as" possibly he could, and
therefore would not receive the least draught of comfort till he had
paid our whole debt. We ' do evil with both hands earnestly,' Micah
vii. 3, and fill our actions with as much disobedience and rebellion as
we can possibly put into them : ' Behold thou hast spoken, and done
evil things as thou couldst/ Jer. iii. 5. Sin hath not been cheap to us;
we have bought the pleasure of it at a dear rate, with much loss and
self-denial ; and therefore Christ's sufferings were made as high and
extreme as possibly they could be.
Let us now see what they did to Christ when he had declared the
extremity of his thirst : ' Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar,
and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and
put it to his mouth,' ver. 29. This fact of theirs is diversely construed ;
some say, they did it out of kindness, and that it was usual to provide
a vessel of vinegar, and to have it at hand under the cross of those
that were executed ; this is probable : others think it an act of spite
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 31
and malice, partly because it is made an exaggeration of calamity : Ps.
Ixix. 21, 'In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink ; ' and partly
because their courtesy to the dying was to give wine and myrrh, and
therefore it is said : Prov. xxxi. 6, ' It is not for kings to drink wine,
nor for princes strong drink ; ' and ver. 6, ' Give strong drink unto
him that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of an heavy
heart ; ' that is to say, it is not for the judge, but the condemned ; and
they mingled it with myrrh and hot spices, partly to attenuate the
blood, and so to despatch them the sooner, and partly to cause giddi
ness, that their senses might be the sooner gone. But now, instead of
wine and myrrh they gave Christ vinegar and gall to increase his
misery ; and they prepared it in readiness in case he called for the
usual refreshment. And the conjecture of the Carthusian is not amiss,
who imputeth it to the malice of the soldiers to change the wine pre
pared by the charitable women into vinegar, for the greater spite and
mockage. And it is said, ' They rilled a spunge with vinegar, and
put it upon hyssop.' The other evangelists say, ' They put it upon a
reed ; ' and it is hard to conceive then how they could put it upon hyssop.
It is probable that hyssop in these countries was tall, as mustard-seed
is said to grow up into a tree ; and Pliny saith they made staves of
mallows in Arabia, which with us is but a slender herb ; but hyssop
is put for a shrub. Solomon wrote of all herbs, from the cedar to
the hyssop, but that is wall-hyssop, which is dwarfish and tender, as
ours is.
Observe, when Christ stood in our stead, no comfort was granted to
him but what was devised to augment his grief. When his strength was
dried up like a potsherd, and his tongue cleaved to his jaws, ' They
gave him vinegar to drink,' when he was providing for us a cup of
blessings, a torrent and a river of pleasure, of which we might drink :
ver. 30, ' When he had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished ;
and he bowed the head, and gave up the ghost.' When he had
received it, that is, tasted it, for they put it into his mouth with a
spunge on the top of a reed, then he said, ' It is finished ; ' that is, as
much as was necessary for his humiliation, God's glory, and man's
salvation ; as much as was decreed, as much as was foretold. And he
saith, ' It is finished,' because he was now upon the last work, death,
which was coming upon him ; and therefore foldeth it in the expres
sion with what is past, ' It is finished,' because the last act was at hand :
Mat. xxvi. 28, ' This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed ;'
that is, which is about to be shed : John xvii. 4, ' I have finished the
work thou gavest me to do.' All the sufferings were now completed
it death, which he was to suffer for our sins.
Doct. Christ closed not his sufferings till all was finished which he
to do for us.
1. In what sense it is said, ' It is finished.'
2. The evidences and reasons thereof.
3. What comfort this is to the faithful.
I. la what sense it is said, ' It is finished.'
1. All the scripture prophecies which spake of Christ's death and
sufferings were now fulfilled and accomplished ; as that he should
make his entrance into Jerusalem upon an ass in all humility ; this
32 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
was prophesied of the Messiah : Zech. ix. 9, ' Behold thy king cometli
unto thee ; he is just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon
an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass ; ' and fulfilled by Christ,
Mat. xxi. 4, 5, ' All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold
the king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt,
the foal of an ass.' That he should be betrayed by one of his familiars,
his own disciple : Ps. Iv. 12, 13, ' It was not an enemy that reproached
me ; then I could have borne it : neither was it he that hated me that
did magnify himself against me : but it was thou, a man, mine equal,
my guide, and my acquaintance/ So Ps. xli. 9, 'Yea, mine own
familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath
lift up his head against me ; ' which wag fulfilled, Mat. xxvi. 23,
' He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me ; '
and accordingly Judas came to attack him, Mat. xxvi. 47. That he
should be sold for thirty pieces of silver : Zech. xi. 12, ' So they weighed
for my price thirty pieces of silver.' Fulfilled, Mat. xxvi. 15. That
with these thirty pieces of silver there should be bought afterwards a
field of potsherds : Zech. xi. 13, ' And the Lord said unto me, Cast it
unto the potter : and I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them
to the potter in the house of the Lord.' Fulfilled, Mat. xxvii. 7, ' And
they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury
strangers in/ That being apprehended, he should be most barbarously
entreated by the Jews, and be beaten' and buffeted, and his face defiled
with spitting, according to that of Isaiah the prophet : Isa. 1. 6, ' I gave
my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting/ Fulfilled, Mat.
xxvi. 67, ' Then did they spit in his face, and buffet him, and others
smote him with the palms of their hands/ That they would wound,
rend, and tear his body with scourges before they put him to death :
Isa. liii. 5, ' He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for
our iniquities.; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with
his stripes we are healed/ Fulfilled, Mat! xxvii. 26, ' When he had
scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified/ And they did at
length put him to death according to the prophecy : ' The Messiah was
to be cut off, but not for himself,' Dan. ix. 26. That the death that he
should die was the death of the cross, unto which he was nailed hand
and foot according to that of David : Ps. xxii. 16, ' They pierced my
hands and my feet ; ' and that of Zech. xii. 10, ' They shall look upon
me whom they have pierced/ Fulfilled, Luke xxiii. 33, ' And when
they were come to Mount Calvary, there they crucified him/ That he
was crucified between two malefactors, one on the right hand and the
other on the left, according to that of Isa. liii. 12, ' He was numbered
with the transgressors ; ' Luke xxii. 37, ' For I say unto you, that this
which is written must yet be accomplished in me ; And he was
reckoned among transgressors, for the things concerning me have an
end/ He was to pray for his enemies and persecutors, according to
that of Isa. liii. 12, ' He made intercession for the transgressors ; ' and
this was fulfilled in that prayer, Luke xxiii. 24, ' Then said Jesus,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do/ So Ps. Ixix.
21, ' In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink/ Fulfilled as before.
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 33
That they should divide his apparel, and cast lots for his upper garment :
Ps. xxii. 18, ' They part ray garment among them, and cast lots upon
my vesture.' Fulfilled, Mat. xxvii. 35, ' And they crucified him, and
parted his garments, casting lots.' Well, then, all these particulars
foretold of the Messiah were exactly fulfilled in our Saviour, and so
conduce to settle our hearts in helieving his person and office. Well,
then, might he say now, ' It is finished.'
2. That the substance of the types were accomplished in him, as that
of the brazen serpent, the paschal lamb, the daily and yearly sacrifices,
the offering of Isaac ; all which prefigured that Christ should die for
the sins of the world. As Abraham offered his only son Isaac to God
as a proof and demonstration of his faith and obedience : ' Now I know
that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me,' Gen. xxii. 12 ; so God gave his Son as a proof and
demonstration of his love : 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation
for our sins.' Isaac carried the wood to the sacrifice of himself, so did
Christ his cross. The lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness,
that whosoever looked upon it should be healed : Num. xxi. 9, ' And
Moses made a serpent, and put it upon a pole ; and it came to pass
that if any serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived ; ' this figured Christ lifted up upon the cross, that all
those bitten by the old serpent might by looking be cured : John iii.
14, 15, ' And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.' The paschal lamb was slain
just at the time when Christ died, and his flesh eaten, not a bone broken,
John xix. 33 ; his blood sprinkled on the door-posts ; all which were
accomplished in Christ, who is ' the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world,' John i. 29. The daily sacrifice was offered morning
and evening, to show our daily use of Christ, who was ' a lamb without
spot arid blemish,' 1 Peter i. 19. The anniversary sacrifice of the two
goats on the day of expiation, Num. xvi., when there was a live goat to
be sent into the wilderness, and the other was slain, and Aaron was to
put both his hands upon the head of the scape-goat, confessing the sins
of the people, and that scape-goat was to carry all their sins into
the land of forgetfulness ; all which signified the expiation of all our
sins by Christ dying for our offences, and rising again for our justifica
tion. For the scape-goat was sent into the wilderness far from the
sanctuary, to show that all our sins are put far away out of God's sight ;
the other goat is said to be kept for the Lord, that it might be slain,
and be offered to him for sacrifice upon the altar. Well, now, these
and all other types were finished, that is, obtained their end and
accomplishment.
3. All was finished that was necessary to make him a fit pattern of
patience to us ; for he had borne the extremity of his enemies' malice,
all that man or devils could by the permission of God execute upon
him ; for he saith, Luke xxii. 53, ' This is your hour, and the power
of darkness.' Yea, he had drunk up the cup which the Father had put
into his hands, to the very dregs. One end of Christ's death was to
give us an example: 1 Peter ii. 21, 'Christ also suffered for us,
VOL. xix. o
34 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps.' Now here is
a full copy and pattern of the right way of suffering for all his own to
imitate.
[1.] From the matter. Are you tempted and opposed by Satan and
his instruments ? so was Christ. Have you discountenance from men ?
Christ had much more. Doth God seem to forsake you ? so he did
by Christ. Are you fain to lie on your knees crying for mercy ? Christ
'in the days of his flesh offered up prayers and supplications, with strong
cries and tears, to him that was able to save him from death, and was
heard in that he feared,' Heb. v. 7. Are you mocked, reviled, buffeted,
contumeliously used ? so was Christ. Are you scourged, put to death
by violence ? so was Christ.
[2.] From the manner ; with meekness and constancy. With meek
ness, not as swine, but as sheep : Isa. liii. 7, ' As a sheep before the
shearer is dumb, so he opened not his mouth ; ' 1 Peter ii. 23, ' Who
when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened
not ; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.' Though
he had not in the least kind offended either God or man, yet he was
handled as a sinner ; and when foul crimes were laid to his charge, he
did not repay his slanderers in their own coin, but resigned himself
to God to deal with him and his persecutors as he saw fitting ; he
vented no carnal passion. So for constancy ; he continued till all was
finished, and ' became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,'
Phil. ii. 8. When he was tempted to descend from the cross, he would
not, but stayed there as long as it was necessary ; to show us that we
should not descend from our cross, and free ourselves from tribulation
by sin till all be finished. If God keepeth us long in an oppressed state
without relief or deliverance, do not make haste, but tarry his leisure.
If by providence you are unequally yoked, bear your cross as long as
God seeth fit to continue it to you. If it be a long imprisonment, a
long tedious sickness, or any other affliction, do not descend from your
cross till God take it off, and help not yourselves by sin out of affliction.
[3.] From the end ; the bitterest trouble will at length have an end.
Christ was a man of sorrows all his days, tempted, despised, persecuted,
censured, scourged, crucified, but at length the TereXec-Tat/ It is finished,'
cometh, and there is a kind of triumph over all his enemies and
calamities ; to teach us to finish our course with perseverance and
patience, that at the last we may say we are come to the end of our
sorrows. His laborious pilgrimage was now over, and there will a
time come when ours shall be over also. Christ's life was a continual
cross and constant affliction, but at length all was finished, and the
sorrows of thirty-three years recompensed with glory and honour, and
great fruit and success in the affairs of his kingdom. What is a little
momentary suffering to the rest of eternity ? For a little while he
was the despising of men, and the leaving-off of the people ; but after
wards God exalted him, and gave him a name above all names. The
perfidious Jews rejoiced for a while, but a sad reckoning came after
wards. Judas had small time to enjoy his thirty pieces ; Pilate within
a while rued his facility and yielding to the importunity of the Jews.
But as to afflictions holily suffered, stay a little, and all the bitter part
will be over.
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 35
4. All was fulfilled which God determined to be done for the expia
tion of sin ; so that no more ransom is to be paid ; our debt is satisfied ;
divine justice hath no more demand to us ; sin, Satan, and death are
spoiled and disarmed, and way is made for our salvation to be owned,
as coming from Christ alone, This is the main circumstance, and
therefore I shall explain it a little (1.) Negatively ; (2.) Positively.
[1.] Negatively; and there (1.) In regard of Christ himself ; and
(2.) In respect of us.
(1.) In regard of Christ himself. Not as if all the necessary acts
of his mediation were now past. Death was just at hand, and was com
prised in the expression ; his lying in the grave was but the continua
tion of his abasement, till the time of his exaltation should come. But
in the way of satisfying justice he had no more to do; whatever was
done afterwards was by way of reward, not to satisfy justice, but to
satisfy the world of the dignity of his person. He was to rise from
the dead, and ascend into glory ; that is, for our more abundant com
fort. His resurrection was his solemn acquittance ; our surety was let
out of prison : Eom. iv. 25, ' Who was delivered for our offences, and
rose again for our justification.' His ascension was that we might
have a friend at God's right hand to appear for us : Heb. viii. 1,
'We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens ; ' Heb, ix. 24, ' For Christ is
not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us ; ' that being in a glorified and exalted condition, he might power
fully apply his purchase, and by his Spirit communicate the fruits
thereof to believers. And he is to come to judgment, to bless and
reward his people and to punish his enemies. But all the sufferings
are now completed, or about to be completed, which he was to suffer
for our sins.
(2.) In respect of us. It is not so finished but that something is to
be done by the creature. Though the satisfaction be never so perfect,
yet there is a necessity of application. The sacrifice and atonement is
sufficient, but it must be applied in the way appointed by God. The
means of applying are partly internal, which qualify the subject, and
make us capable of the benefit of this atonement and satisfaction, which
are faith and repentance, and also new obedience as the consequent of
both ; for repentance is a returning to our duty to God, and faith a
thankful owning of our Redeemer, by whom we return ; and if we are
serious and real, all will end in new obedience and holiness, or else we
are liable to wrath still. Faith is necessary : Rom. iii. 25, ' Whom
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.'
Repentance is necessary : Acts iii. 19, ' Repent ye, therefore, and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out.' New obedience is
lecessary : Heb. v. 9, ' He is become the author of eternal salvation to
,11 that obey him.' And partly external, by the word and sacraments.
n he word : John xvii. 19, ' And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that
ey also may be sanctified through the truth.' The word calleth upon
us to accept of Christ, and that life and mercy which is offered to us
in him ; the sacraments, which are baptism and the Lord's supper .
By baptism we profess and are obliged to put on Christ : Gal. iii. 27,
' For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
36 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
Christ ;' or to apply him to ourselves as a garment to the body, that he
may communicate to us his righteousness, life, and Spirit ; and by the
Lord's supper we come more abundantly to take part in this consola
tion: 1 Cor. x. 16, 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the com
munion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not
the communion of the body of Christ ? ' that is, hereby we are solemnly
made partakers of the body and blood of Christ, and the benefits
purchased thereby.
[2.] Positively ; that the work of our redemption, so far as related to
sufferings, was now about to be consummated. Christ's sacrifice, which
he was about to offer for us, was no imperfect sacrifice. This appeareth
by his message to Herod : Luke xiii. 32, ' I do cures to-day and to
morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected ; ' that is, the work of
his office was then fully to be accomplished : Heb. ii. 10, ' The captain
of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings.' Christ as
mediator seemed to lack something till the full number of his sorrows
was accomplished; then he was perfectly fitted to do us good. So
Heb. x. 14, ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified.' As to an offering, there needeth no more. A patched
salvation, of half of Christ and of half of the creature, will not do good ;
as if Christ must do a part and we must merit the rest ; this is in
consistent with God's design. We must not part stakes with God ;
this is neither for our comfort, God's glory, nor our Redeemer's welcome
to heaven. No ; Christ is a workman that needeth not to be ashamed ;
he could avouch his work before the tribunal of God ; all is finished.
Now he can plead his right at the bar of justice : Ps. ii. 8, ' Ask of me,
and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter
most parts of the earth for thy possession.'
II. The evidences and reasons of this complete satisfaction.
1. From the dignity of the person satisfying. Two things are re
quired in our mediator that he might be a sufficient undertaker for us.
One is, that he should be perfectly holy and righteous ; for how could
he redeem us from sin, who, being defiled with sin, had needed to be
redeemed himself ? The second was, that he should be a divine and
infinite person ; for sin' being committed against an infinite majesty,
therefore the suffering by which it must be expiated must be of an
infinite value. Now both these do perfectly concur in Christ ; for as
man, ' He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners/ Heb.
vii. 26 ; and died, ' The just for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God,' 1 Peter iii. 18. He was perfectly holy, even holiness itself:
Luke i. 35, ' That holy thing which shall be bora of thee shall be
called the Son of God.' As he was God over all, blessed for ever, he
was capable to give a value to his sufferings ; to which purpose God
is said to purchase the church with his own blood : Acts xx. 28, ' Feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.'
In short, God was resolved to lose no glory by the fall ; and therefore,
whosoever was the redeemer, he was to restore what Adam took away
by the fall. God's authority was violated by the creatures' transgres
sion, whose command was just, and our obedience reasonable. Now it
was meet that God should keep up the authority of his law. His
majesty also was despised in slighting the threatening, and his holiness
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 37
wronged, as if he did not hate sin; and his justice and truth, as if he
would not punish it ; his power lessened, for sin is an act of presump
tion, and implieth a contest with God. Now in all these respects it
was necessary that God should vindicate his glory, and be no loser ;
which was fully brought to pass by Christ, to whom there is in scrip
ture a double fulness and sufficiency attributed. A fulness of grace or
holiness : ' For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness
dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself,' Col. i. 19, 20.
And therefore he is said, ' To be full of grace and truth, that of his
fulness we may all receive, and grace for grace,' John i. 14, 16.
Besides this, there is a 'fulness of the godhead that dwelt in him bodily/
Col. ii. 9. Not mystically and spiritually, as in believers ; not sym
bolically, as in the sacraments ; not typically, as in the law ; but
bodily, that is, really and personally, as body is opposed to shadow, or
noteth a person. Well, then, the argument is strong. If the person,
satisfying were not only holy and undefiled, but also infinite, the satis
faction also must be infinite, and therefore most perfect and sufficient ;
for what can be greater and more perfect than what is infinite ? And
therefore all is finished ; if such a person will take a body, and die for
us, there needeth no other satisfaction.
2. I reason from the unity of the mediatory office, and that oblation
or sacrifice which was made by Christ by virtue of that office : 2 Cor.
v. 14, 'If one died for all, then were all dead ; ' 1 Tim. ii. 5, ' There
is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.' And
as these places prove that there is but one mediator, so there is but
one sacrifice : Heb. x. 10, ' By the which will we are sanctified,
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all;' and
ver. 14, ' For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified ; ' Kom. v. 18, ' By the righteousness of one, the free gift
came upon all to justification of life ;' Heb. ix. 26, 'But now once
in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself; ' ver. 28, ' So Christ was once offered to bear the
sins of many.' The scripture so emphatically insisting upon this term,
' once ; ' certainly all is finished ; there needeth no more to be done
by us to satisfy God's justice ; that is sufficiently done already.
3. From the greatness of the punishment imposed upon Christ;
for if he suffered all the punishments due to us, it cannot be that any
thing more should be done to pacify God ; all is finished. Now Christ
omitted none of those things which divine justice required: he 'ful
filled all righteousness,' Mat. iii. 15 ; ' Was obedient to death, even
the death of the cross,' Phil. ii. 8. Yea, and suffered all those things
which the law did put upon sinners, either as to loss or sense, as to
desertion or as to the curse ; and therefore he is said, ' To bear our
griefs, and carry our sorrows, and to be wounded for our transgressions,
and to be bruised for our iniquities,' Isa. liii. 4, 5 ;' To be made a
curse for us/ Gal. iii. 15 ; 'To be made sin for us,' 2 Cor. v. 21. God
spared him not, but put him to grief, not out of hatred to his Son, but
love to our salvation. Hence those agonies of Christ, and prayers, and
tears, and strong cries.
4. From God's approbation of the person and sacrifice of Christ. If
God did so far approve the sacrifice of Christ as willingly to accept it
38 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
for our redemption, that upon it he grounded a covenant, and made
offers of terms of grace to us, and reconciliation with us, there is no
question but that upon Christ's death all was finished. No more was
necessary for paying the price and ransom, for God, the most just
judge, would not accept of an imperfect satisfaction, or give testimony
that he was well pleased with it. But that Christ's person arid
sacrifice was approved of God is evident, not only as he appointed
it ; and surely he will accept what he hath appointed ; not only
also by the miracles which he wrought when alive, which evidenced
his commission : Acts ii. 22, ' Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God
did by him in the midst of you ; ' but chiefly by the resurrection
of Christ, which was not only a testimony of the truth and dignity of
his person : Kom. i. 4, ' And declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by the .resurrection from the dead ; '
but it was a clear argument of the perfectness of his satisfaction ; for
unless he had abundantly satisfied God, how could God, who, as a
just judge, had appointed him to die for our sins, raise him up from
the dead ? Would an upright judge deliver a debtor or his surety
from prison unless first full payment had been made ? Would God
show himself willing to be reconciled to us if yet there remained any
wrath to be appeased, any farther ransom necessary to be paid for
us ? Now in the scripture Christ is sometimes said to rise from the
dead to show his divine power ; sometimes to be raised by God to show
the fulness of his satisfaction : Acts ii. 24, ' Whom God hath raised
up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that
he should be hoi den of them.' When Christ was raised, our surety
was let out of prison ; and the scripture hath delivered it to us under
that notion : Isa. liii. 8, ' He was taken from prison, and from judg
ment, and who shall declare his generation ? For he was cut off from
the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he
stricken.' The Lord sent an angel to remove his gravestone, not to
supply any lack of power in Christ, but to show he was fully appeased
and satisfied. Therefore it is said, Heb. xiii. 20, ' Now the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.'
Mark, through the blood of the everlasting covenant he is become the
God of peace ; through the blood of the everlasting covenant he
brought Christ from the dead. He doth not only do us good, but lets
go our surety through the virtue of that blood. The phrase of ' bring
ing again from the dead/ is emphatical. Christ did not break prison,
but was brought forth as the apostles, Acts xvi. 39 ; the magistrates
came to the prison ' and brought them out/ Christ rose not only by
his own power, but by the Father's authority. If our surety had
perished in prison, we could have no assurance ; or if he had continued
still under death, the world could have no discharge ; but Christ rose
again, and is not only taken out of prison, but carried up to God in
glory and honour : 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Received up into glory/ It is
not avedrj, actively he ascended, but dvaX^dij, passively he was
raised up. God hath rewarded him ; and therefore he hath perfectly
done his work. God hath not only taken him out of the grave, but
taken him up to glory. Certainly God is well pleased since he hath
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 39
given him not only a discharge, but a reward. Christ undertaking
for us is somewhat like that of Keuben for Benjamin : Gen. xliii. 9, ' I
will be surety for him ; of my hand shalt thou require him : if I
bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the
blame for ever.' ' Let me see thy face no more.' Christ undertook
to carry it through, and failed not in the enterprise.
III. What comfort is this to poor sinners, since, though there be a
full satisfaction, conditions are required which we are not able to per
form, ere we can have benefit ; and we find sin remaining in us, so
that it is finished, and unfinished as to us ?
I answer There is great comfort in God's general grace, before it
be particularly applied and exhibited to us in the effects and sense
thereof. A sufficient sacrifice and ransom given for you is the founda
tion of all solid peace, for it is the foundation of the gospel, or of the
covenant of grace. I shall prove it by these reasons
1. Because this answereth the grand scruple which haunteth the
creature, and is at the bottom of all our fears ; namely, how God's
justice shall be appeased : Micah vi. 6, 7, ' Wherewith shall I come
before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? Shall I come
before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? will the
Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers
of oil ? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul ? ' The way of appeasing God's anger hath
been an old controversy, that hath troubled all nations ; and till it be
answered and fully determined, man is not ' perfect as appertaining to
the conscience,' Heb. ix. 9. Though God be infinitely merciful, yet he
is infinitely just ; and we can expect no more from his mercy than we
may fear from his justice. Guilty nature still presageth evil to us, till
there be something penal endured, and something of price and value
given to appease justice.
2. That God now looketh for no satisfaction at your hand ; it is all
done perfectly by Christ ; all is finished. He satisfied for us that we
might not be obliged to satisfy in our own persons : Heb. i. 3, ' When
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high ; ' Isa. liii. 5, ' By his stripes we are healed.' It was
at his cost that our recovery was brought about.
3. In this provision we see the will of God putting forth itself for
our help in the most astonishing way that could be imagined : 1 Tim.
iii. 16, ' Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God
manifested in the flesh ; ' 1 John iv. 10, ' Herein is love ; not that
we loved God, but God loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitia
tion for our sins.' This is such an unusual expression of love, such an
engaging instance, so much surpassing our thoughts, that we cannot
sufficiently admire it. When God laid such a broad foundation, surely
he intended some notable grace to us.
4. Here is a full answer to those usual objections which are raised
by broken hearts, as the number, and greatness, and heinousness of
our sins ; for as such they shall not be your ruin. As great as they
are, God can with honour pardon them ; for barely to plead the number
of sins or greatness of sins, is to lessen the price. The Messiah came,
Dan. ix. 24, ' To finish transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to
40 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
bring in everlasting righteousness.' There is no sin so great but the
Kedeemer's merit can countervail it. And no man shall perish for the want
of the payment of his ransom, or an expiatory sacrifice for his sins. He
may perish for his impenitenqy and unbelief, but not merely for the
greatness of his sin ; for what sin is so great that it is not or cannot
be expiated by the blood of Christ ? Christ's satisfaction maketh the
salvation of the worst possible ; you may have peace with God if you will.
5. It bindeth our duty the closer upon us. No man shall perish but
for want of a willing heart to accept of the Redeemer, who hath paid
our ransom, and of the grace which he hath brought to us, by which
we may be interested and instated in the benefits of this ransom. All
things are ready if we are ready : Luke xiv. 17, ' Come, for all things
are now ready.' God's fatlings are killed, his wines are mingled ; if
we will not come to the feast, we perish through our own default. We
need confer nothing ; all is but to receive the benefits propounded and
offered ; victory over death, hell, sin, Satan, is ready ; yea, heaven is
ready, and all spiritual blessings are ready, if we are ready ; for the
merit and satisfaction of Christ is the great cause of all that blessedness
which is offered to the creature. God hath opened the way to all ; if
they will not enter into it, they perish by their own default. He hath
sent preachers into all the world : Mark xvi. 15, 16, ' And he said unto
them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned ; ' Titus ii. 11, ' For the grace of God, that bringeth
salvation, hath appeared to all men.' Let us not refuse our cure, though
we must take a bitter potion, though we must enter in by the strait
gate of faith and repentance, and walk in the narrow way of self-denial,
and all holy conversation, and godliness ; yet because it is to life, and
the legal exclusion is taken off, let us enter and walk in it. Indeed, if
the door were shut against us by the sentence of the law, and there was
no way to remove the bars and bolts, our excuse were more just, be
cause then our condition would be hopeless. But now all is finished,
salvation rendered possible ; now God hath taken away the bars and
bolts by which his law shut us out from all hope ; let us not set up bars
and bolts by our own unbelief and by our own cowardly fears. If man
were not man, but a beast, a fool, or a madman, it might more excus
ably be allowed to them to be led by sense and appetite, and then it
were an intolerable thing to crucify the flesh, with the affections thereof ;
but man, having reason, doth know, or may know, that this command
of God is equal ; that God doth not only require, but help us to per
form it, and pi-event us by his grace.
6. It doth not only bind our duty upon us, but it encourages us to
repent and believe and obey ; for Christ is ' able to save to the utmost
all those that come to God by him/ Heb. vii. 25 ; and he is ' the
author and finisher of our faith,' Heb. xii. 2 ; and doth ' give repent
ance as well as remission of sins,' Acts v. 31 ; ' For to you it is given,
on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer
for his sake,' Phil. i. 29. The first grace is his gift, and his resolved
gift to the elect, but all are to take their lot. If it were said to us
alone that we should strive to enter in at the strait gate, or that we
alone should deny ourselves, and take up our cross and follow him, it
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 41
were hard ; but when the same terms are propounded to all, and when
many, young and old, rich and poor, have received them, and have
tried God's ways, and it hath succeeded well with them upon trial, why
should we fear it ? If nobody had done it, or could do it, then we
might stick at God's terms. This argument Austin used to himself in
his conflicts of conscience, lib. viii. Confess, chap. 11. When he had long
withstood offers of grace, he would then propound to himself the ex
ample of others : Cur non poteris quod isti, et istce ? Isli et istcc non
in se pouterunt, sed in Domino Deo suo Why may not I, as well as
those holy men and those good women ? They did it not in themselves,
but in the strength of their God, and the power of his grace. The
yoke of Christ will be more easy than we think of, especially when it
is lined with grace.
7. When we have once accepted the condition, cleared up our title,
then we shall have cause to glory in the Lord, and be sensible indeed
that all things are finished which are necessary to our comfort and
peace, and that this was a full merit ; as Paul would glory in the cross
of Christ : Gal. vi. 14, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' Eom. viii. 1, ' There is now no con
demnation to them which are in Christ.' Then we shall make the bold
challenge of faith : Horn. viii. 33, 34, ' Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect ? it is God that justifieth; who is he that con-
demneth ? it is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is
even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us/ If
Christ had not made a full expiation of all our sins, we were under
condemnation still. He doth not say, There is nothing worthy of
condemnation in believers ; for as long as sin and the flesh remaineth
in us (which doth as long as we live in the world), there is a
potential guilt of damnation, an intrinsic merit in our actions of
death and condemnation ; yet the actual guilt or obligation is taken
away, because Christ is made a curse for us. Well, then, our solid
rejoicing to the last is in this complete satisfaction : Kom. v. 11, ' We
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
received the atonement ; it is Kav^a>jj,evot t we glory in God.
Use. Let this raise in us
1. An hearty thankfulness and admiration of the love of Christ, who
would not give over suffering till he could say, ' It is finished ; ' till he
had done enough to glorify God and save the creature ; enough for the
destruction of sin, as well as the abolition of the curse. Christ did not
compound, but paid the utmost farthing. Oh, let us raise our thoughts
in the consideration of this love. His enemies interrupted him, and
tempted him to give over : ' Save thyself ; if thou be the Son of God,
come down from the cross,' Mat. xxvii. 40, 42 ; 'If he be the king of
Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.'
But because he was the Son of God and the king of Israel, he would
not come down till he was taken down, and all was done that was neces
sary : 'All God's works are perfect/ Deut. xxxii. 4. The Father ceased
not till, upon the sixth day, he had perfected the work of the creation,
and upon the seventh day he rested ; so Christ will not come down till
he had finished the work of redemption on the sixth day, and on the
seventh he rested in the grave, and rose early in the morning on the
42 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30,
first day of the week, to show the truth of his 'satisfaction. And the
Holy Ghost's work is perfect ; all the time of this life he continueth
increasing our graces, but in the everlasting sabbatism, when sin shall
be no more, his work is brought to an end ; and then he shall ' present
you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy,'
Jude 24.
But what were the reasons why Christ would not give over till all
was perfected ?
[1.] Love to his Father : John xviii. 11, ' The cup which my Father
hath given me, shall I not drink it ? ' Christ loved the Father with
unspeakable love, and was in like manner beloved by him. Therefore
when this cup was put into his hands by his Father, he would drink
it off to the very bottom.
[2.] Love to the church : Eph. v. 25, 26, ' Even as Christ loved the
church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water, by the word,' &c. ; and Rev. i. 5, 6, ' To
him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.'
The church was given for a spouse to Christ, but we were polluted
and defiled with sin ; he would not only cleanse it, but make it a
' glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,' Eph.
v. 27. Christ loved the church, and therefore it was not grievous to
him to wash it with his blood. Because Jacob loved Rachel, he served
seven years for her in heats and frosts by night and day, and ' they
seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her,' Gen. xxix.
20 ; so the Son of God loved the church, and therefore endured all
these indignities and grievous passions.
[3.] He had respect to that eminent glory set before him : Heb.
xii. 2, ' Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who,
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God.'
Though the way was rough, the prize was excellent ; and so he ran
through all the pain and shame, and attained the eternal crown of
glory. He endured cruel pains in his body, and bitter sorrows in his
soul, such as never any man did suffer, never any angel could have
borne as he did ; so dear did it cost our Saviour to make a propitiation
for our sins. That which in all this did strengthen and encourage him
was the joy set before him, namely, that happy and glorious estate
which followed upon his sufferings, so that his burden was made the
lighter, and his sorrows much abated. Oh, let us think Of this ! It is
not a lessening his love to us, for he needed not to put himself into
this condition. Herein he was our example, to teach us how to
sweeten the cross ; and as our Mediator he is gone to heaven to prepare
a place for us : John xiv. 2, 3, ' I go to prepare a place for you ; and
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to
myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.'
2. Let it raise in us a confidence of the benefits purchased. For
Christ expresseth himself as a conqueror, and in a kind of triumph
over the devil and all the enemies of our salvation. The wrath of God
is appeased: Rom. v. 9, ' Much more then, being now justified by his
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.' The law is satis
fied : Gal. iv. 4, 5, ' God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 43
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law/ Satan is
vanquished : John xii. 31, 'Now is the judgment of this world ; now
shall the prince of this world be cast out.' Guilt is removed : Eph.
i. 7, ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive
ness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.' Sin is subdued :
Eom. vi. 6, ' Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin.' Death is unstinged : 1 Cor. xv. 55-57, ' death ! where
is thy sting ? grave ! where is thy victory ? The sting of death is
sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' The curse is
removed : Gal. iii. 13, ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us.' Surely where Christ beginneth he
will make an end. We cannot have too high thoughts of the blood of
Christ: Heb. ix. 13, 14, ' For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and
the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purify
ing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your
consciences from dead works, to serve the living God.' Let us stand
still now, and behold the salvation of God, and echo to Christ's cry,
' It is finished ! it is finished ! ; What can the law crave more than
the blood of the Son of God ? What will make us perfect as apper
taining to the conscience if this will not ? Being justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him. Christ hath so far
obtained pardon and acceptance for us, that he hath made an end of
sin for all that are willing to accept of his grace upon God's terms.
3. Let it quicken us to perseverance in our duty, notwithstanding
sufferings, till all be ended ; that, when we come to die, we may be
able to say, John xvii. 4, ' I have glorified thee on earth ; I have
finished the work thou gavest me to do ; ' .2 Tim. iv. 7, 8, ' I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.' If
Christ out of love to us would finish the work of our redemption,
' What shall separate us from the love of Christ ? ' Rom. viii. 39.
4. It teacheth us how to comfort ourselves in death. It finisheth all
our labours and sorrows, as Christ showeth when he was about to give
up the ghost : Isa. Ivii. 2, ' He shall enter into peace ; they shall rest
in their beds.' Believers have a joy set before them as well as Christ.
The wicked cannot say, ' It. is finished ; ' their evils are then begun.
5. Let us believe things to come. The event showeth that all those
things were true which the prophets had so long before foretold. The
Holy Ghost cannot be deceived, nor can God lie. We are certain that
things yet to come shall be fulfilled as well as these which are past.
Those who lived before Christ's time had not such an experiment of
God's truth as we have. We have seen the coming of Christ ; let us
so fix our minds on future things, as to draw them off from earthly.
He boived his head, and gave up the ghost. I come to the latter
part of the text. Some read it that first he died, and then bowed the
head, there being no spirit left to support it ; but Christ first bowed
the head, and then died ; he did as it were beckon to death to come
and do its office : ' He yielded up the ghost ; ' his soul was truly
44 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
separated from his body. The form of resignation we have, Lnke
xxiii. 46, ' Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.' Wicked men,
because they die against their wills, their souls are said to be taken
away : Luke xii. 20, ' Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall be required
of thee ; ' Job xxvii. 8, ' For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though
he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul ? ' But Christ
yieldeth it up ; and for a godly man to give up the ghost noteth his
faith, submission, and willingness to depart out of the body. As the
prophet saith of Christ, Isa. liii. 12, ' He hath poured out his soul unto
death.' Death did not surprise him.
Doct. When all things were finished, Christ freely and willingly
gave up the ghost.
His life was not taken away, but resigned ; there was much of
violence, but no coaction. The term, giving up the ghost, doth not
imply the bare death of Christ, but that he died willingly and freely.'
Nihil in hoc Christo est, nisi profusa liberalitas misericordice, et re-
missionis peccatorum I can see nothing in this Christ but a prodi
gality of love and mercy. He had freely emptied his veins in the
garden ; every pore became an eye, and wept blood for your sakes ; and
now he cometh to pour out his soul.
Keasons why Christ was so willing to die.
1. Out of obedience to his Father. The divine decrees had laid a
necessity upon him, and where the Father saith, Must, Christ saith, I
will : Mat. xxvi. 54, 55, ' Thinkest thou not that I cannot now pray to
my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of
angels ? ' (which was the just number of a Eoman army); ' But how
then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be ? ' Christ
willingly took this necessity upon him ; it was but necessitous ex liypotliesi.
Had it not been for his eternal consent it would never have been said,
' Thus it must be ; ' Luke xxii. 37, ' This that is written must be
accomplished ; ' Luke xxiv. 46, ' Thus it is written, and thus it behov-
eth Christ to suffer.' It was a necessity of his own making ; he was
not compelled to accept of the conditions from God, nor forced by the
violence of man to yield up his life : John x. 18, ' No man taketh it
from me, but I lay it down of myself ; I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have
I received of my Father.'
2. Out of love to us. The Jews crucified him, but love made him
die ; we had else perished for ever. The law laid it upon us, but love
made Christ take it upon himself : Isa. liii. 4, ' Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows.' Justice demanded it of us, but
Christ said, I will be responsible ; exact it of me : Mat. xx. 28, ' Even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give his life a ransom for many.' He took life to lay it down at the
demand of justice. Justice said, I must have a ransom ; Christ said,
Take it of me ; let these go : Job xxxiii. 24, ' Then he is gracious unto
them, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit ; I have
found a ransom.' The Father received it, and Christ paid it ; as the
angel said to Abraham, Gen. xxii. 12, ' Lay not thine hand upon the
lad, neither do thou anything unto him.' Justice would have reached
forth a deadly stroke to us, but Christ catched the blow.
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. . 45
3. This would finish his labours. Death was Christ's last enemy,
of his person, as well as of his kingdom. He had been harassed and
worn out with sorrows ; the grave was a place of rest ; it was finished
as to him : Isa. Ivii. 2, ' He shall enter into peace ; they shall rest in
their beds.' Death was the end of Christ's journey, and all his labours
in the flesh. The grave was a dark dismal place till Christ went into
it ; ever since it is but a chamber of rest, and Christ keepeth the key
of it : Isa. xxvi. 20, ' Enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
about thee ; hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment.'
4. This furthered his triumph, and made it every way more complete.
By dying, Christ carried the war into his enemies' land, and foiled
death in its own territory, and made death itself mortal by lying in the
grave. The cross and the grave were the means of Christ's triumph ;
by these the devil thought to foil him, and by these he triumphed : he
conquered Satan and sin when they seemed to have most power upon,
him ; like angry bees, they stung him, and disarmed themselves : Heb.
ii. 14, ' That through death he might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil ; ' Col. ii. 15, ' And having spoiled prin
cipalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it,' ev avrw, i.e., (navpw. On the cross : Eph. ii. 16, ' Hav
ing slain the enmity thereby ; ' that is, by his cross, formerly spoken of.
When he was slain himself, then he slew death and the law. Christ's
crucifying was his exaltation and preferment. It is twice expressed by
lifting up : John iii. 14, ' So shall the Son of man be lifted up ; ' John
xii. 32, 33, ' I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men after me. This he
said, signifying what death he should die.' The grave was consecrated
and sanctified by Christ's lying there. Duo in cruce affixi intelliguntur,
saith Origen ; Christus visibiliter sponte sua ad tempus, diabolus
invisibiliter invitus in perpetuum There were two crucified at once ;
Christ visibly of his own accord, for a time .only; the devil invisibly,
against his will for ever. Christ received a slight hurt in his heel, but
he bruised Satan's head.
5. He was hastening to his own glory : Heb. xii. 2, ' For the joy
that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.' He was thinking
of his welcome to heaven. Oh, what sweet embraces there would be
between the Father and him ! Ps. ex. 1, 'The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit thou at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstool ; '
Dan. vii. 13, 14, ' I saw in the night-visions, and behold, one like the
Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him ; and there was given
him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and
languages, should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed.' How the angels should usher him into glory, though there
were two left with shining garments to give satisfaction to his disciples !
Acts i. 10, 11, ' While they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he
went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which said,
Ye men of Galilee ! why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so return in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.' Christ was thinking
46 . SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
how his Father would embrace him, put the crown upon his head, bid
him sit down at his right hand, and how there he was to be royally
attended. And this doth not derogate from his love to us, for he went
to prepare a place for us, and, as our forerunner, is entered into glory,
and because he lives, we shall live also.
Use 1. To commend the love of Christ to us.
1. That he should die, this was an incomparable condescension of
his love. Simeon suffered himself to be bound for his brethren, Gen.
xlii. 24 ; Lot proffers his daughters to save his guests, Gen. xix. 8 ;
but Christ would lay down his life. If it were in our choice, who
would die ? Who would be tumbled into a pit of darkness, a cold
hole, where he should see the sun no more ? We would live for ever.
It is not put to our choice, but it is in our wishes. ' But Christ might
have chosen whether he would die or no, and yet he died.
2. Christ had more reason to love his life than we have. He had a
delicate body, and the social presence of the Godhead. The poorest
worm in the world desires to keep its life : Job ii. 4, ' Skin for skin,
yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life ; ' that is, a man would
part with all, for skins were the barter of those days. And the more
excellent the life is, the more desire men have to keep it ; as young
men, whose marrow is in their bones, to them life is life indeed. The
woman that was broken and spent with old age yet spent o\ov TOV
/3ioi>, 'all her living on physicians,' Luke viii. 43. Christ had reason
to love life upon a natural respect ; he was about thirty-three years old ;
and upon a spiritual respect, his human nature enjoyed the near pre
sence of the godhead ; but when he was in his full vigour and strength,
he willingly died.
3. That death which he died was a. sad bloody death, the saddest
death that any man could die. He was weakened with the agonies in
the garden: ' They pierced his hands and his feet/ Ps. xxii. 16. The
sinewy parts of his body were pierced with nails, his life dropping out
by degrees ; the irons opened a passage for his soul. And, which was
more than all, he suffered under the wrath of God : Mat. xxvii. 46,
' My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ? '
4. It was a shameful death ; he suffered as a malefactor : Isa. liii.
12, ' He was numbered with the transgressors.' He was crucified
between two thieves, in medio latronum, tanquam latronum maximus,
as if he were the greatest of them. He was treated as a sinner ; we
are made the sons of God. Job was called hypocrite by his friends,
but he would maintain his righteousness till death : Job xxvii. 6,
' My righteousness will I hold fast, and will not let it go ; my heart
shall not reproach me so long as I live.' Eusebius Vercellensis chose
rather to starve in prison than that it should be said he had eaten with
the Arians. Christ takes it patiently to die as a thief, an impostor, a
traitor : John xviii. 30, ' If he were not a malefactor, we would not
have delivered him up unto thee.' The high priest charged him with
blasphemy : Mat. xxvi. 65, ' Then the high priest rent his clothes,
saying, He hath spoken blasphemy ; what further need have we of
witnesses ? Behold now ye have heard his blasphemy.' The disciples
began to doubt of him, and to look on him as an impostor : Luke xxiv.
21, ' We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel.'
SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30. 47
By God himself, when he had taken our sins upon him, he was dealt
with as a transgressor : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' He that hath suffered in the flesh
hath ceased from sin.' He was as a sinner before : Heb. ix. 28, ' So
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.' An ingenuous man
valueth his good name above all enjoyments ; there was enough to
clear Christ's innocency, yet in the repute of the world he suffered as a
malefactor. Oh, how unlike is Christ to the men of the world ! Christ
is innocent, and accounted a transgressor ; they are transgressors, yet
would fain be accounted innocent ; as Saul said to Samuel, 1 Sam. xv.
30, ' I have sinned, yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders
of my people, and before Israel.' We are more careful of credit than
conscience, and would not be accounted sinners, yet do not fear to be
so. What a comfort is this to believers, that Satan cannot lay more to
your charge than his instruments did to Jesus Christ.
5. He submitted to this death most willingly. He thirsted, and
longed to pay the ransom for us ; here was not so much pain and shame
as there was willingness : Gal. i. 4, ' Who gave himself for our sins.'
There was not only the acts of the Father in giving Christ, but a
peculiar act of Christ : ' He gave himself.' How freely did Christ
empty his veins, and let out his soul ! It was no more to Christ to
pour out his soul than for the minister to pour out the wine. We pray
as if we were afraid to be heard ; we hear as if we were loath to be saved ;
we serve God as if we were loath to please him ; there is a grudging in
our acts of duty ; but Christ was free, and willing to die for us.
6. His blood was spilt in malice ; it might have cried for vengeance,
yet it crieth for pardon ; it had the perfume of an infinite merit : Heb.
xii. 24, ' The blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of
Abel.' As to Abel's blood, that crieth for vengeance : Gen. iv. 10,
' The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.'
Christ's blood cries for pardon. As to the actors, his blood would not
have been a curse to them if they had hearkened to the voice of the
gospel. But to speak of ourselves ; we by our sins had made our Lord
to serve and die, yet doth not his blood speak against us, as Abel's did
against Cain ; but it speaks to God, to pacify his wrath and to pardon
us. Our sins cry, Lord, forgive not : Isa. ii. 9, ' The mean man boweth
down, and the great man humbleth himself ; therefore forgive them
not.' They speak in our conscience, Ye deserve death ; but Christ's
blood speaketh words of peace and comfort to cleanse it, and make it
quiet. When wrath is ready to break out from justice, it still crieth,
Father, it is finished ; Christ's blood yet speaketh. When the
awakened conscience lies in fear of the offended judge, and is vexed
with the restless accusations of Satan, the blood of Christ speaketh
better things, viz., It is all forgiven ; it is all expiated by my merit.
Use 2. This affords much comfort to humbled sinners. Take Christ
as freely as he freely offereth himself for you. He resigned up himself
to death, and will not you resign up yourselves by faith ? He poured
out his soul to death, and will not you pour out your souls into his
bosom ? Consider, all the persons of the Trinity are willing, and will
not you? The Father gave him: John iii. 16, 'God so loved the
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.' Christ gave himself : Gal.
ii. 20, ' Who loved me, and gave himself for me.' The Spirit is willing ;
48 SERMON UPON JOHN XIX. 30.
he is grieved with your neglect and refusal : Mat. xxiii. 37, ' How often
would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, but ye would not ! ' Oh, pour out your
souls in faith and prayer, as Christ did his upon the cross.
Use 3. Let us learn to imitate Christ. At the close of his life he
said, ' It is finished/ and so ' bowed the head, and gave up the ghost.'
Believers have a joy set before them as well as Christ. It is not so
with wicked men ; they cannot say that with them it is begun ; their
heaven endeth when they come to die ; but God's people should take
death cheerfully, if they can say, as Christ, John xvii. 4, ' Father, I
have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work that thou
gavest me to do/ Let the death be violent or natural, it is all one
whether we are a peace-offering or a burnt-offering ; there is more of
man's malice in a violent death, but it cannot hurt us. But alas !
men generally do not live as if they did look to die, and therefore they
do not die as if they did look to live ; and so here they would not die.
and there they would not live.
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
But they sought out many inventions. ECCLES. vii. 29.
THERE are two things in this scripture
1. The righteousness of God in his work about men, ' God made man
upright.'
2. Man's perverse subtlety in inventing ways of backsliding and
apostasy from God, ' But they sought out many inventions.'
From this latter part observe
Doct. That man fell from the integrity of his first estate, and is ever
since full of evil and fruitless inventions.
I. I shall speak to this point as it is represented in the text.
II. Give some considerations as to the general case.
1. The persons, ' they.' The expression was singular before, ' God
made Adam upright ; ' but now plural, not only to include both our
first parents, but all their posterity. Adam had his invention, and all
his posterity theirs. The devil inspired Adam with a sad and doleful
invention, to go about to find out another happiness than God had
appointed. Adam could not content himself with this kind of happi
ness, but fancied to himself an higher perfection, and yielded to follow
these new devised ways of blessedness which Satan and his own deceived
heart did suggest to him ; and this invention hath invented and found
out all the sin and misery under which the world groaneth. As Adam
had his invention, so all his posterity theirs ; we are inventing still to
make ourselves more miserable. The least ebullitions of sin are
expressed in the old testament by 'imaginations;' in the new by
'lusts.' In the old testament by 'imaginations;' Jer. xviii. 12, 'And
they said, There is no hope ; but we will walk after our own devices,
and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart ; ' Gen. vi.
5, 'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con
tinually.' In the new by 'lusts;' James i. 14, 'But every man is
tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed ; ' Titus
iii. 3, ' For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts/ Not only the desiring, but the under
standing faculty is corrupt ; therefore it is said, Prov. i. 31, ' They shall
eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices ; '
Jer. vi. 19, ' Behold, I will bring upon this people even the fruit of their
thoughts ; ' meaning the evil which their own devices and practices had
procured to themselves. Every one of us has our devices, ways,
VOL. XIX. D
50 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
and haunts of sin, whereby we make ourselves more wretched and
sinful.
2. Their act, ' They sought out ; ' that showeth the voluntariness
and studiousness of man's defection ; it is their own act and deed, and
their hearts are set upon it. It is said, Jonah ii. 8, ' They that observe
lying vanities forsake their own mercies.' They set their minds a-work,
prostitute their reason to their senses. All men's projects, what do
they tend to but the satisfaction of their own lusts, to cater for the body,
and gratify the animal life ? ' Making provision for the flesh, to fulfil
the lusts thereof,' Rom. xiii. 14 ; ' Taking thought what they shall
eat or what they shall drink,' Mat. vi. 25. Their care is about the base
and brutish part more than about the soul, how to adorn the body and
gratify the body ; and for this the soul must be made a slave. There
is a perverse diligence in men to corrupt themselves.
3. The object, with its number, ' Many inventions.' There is some
difference in the translations. Ludovicus de Dieu, because the word
for ' many ' signifieth also ' great ' and ' mighty,' rendereth it, Ipsi
'autem qucesiverunt cogitationes magnatum ; meaning by the ' mighty '
the angels who were not contented with their own station, but forsook
it, Jude 6. Certain it is the devil's first temptation was, Gen. iii. 5,
' Ye shall be as gods ; ' that is, advance into a more honourable and
noble condition than now you are in. These thoughts being suggested
by Satan, they ambitiously entertained them. The vulgar readeth it,
Se infinitis miscuit qucestionibus. Adam at first out of curiosity would
know good and evil, and ever since we have been sick of questions,
questioning this and questioning that, and have no clear light to guide
us. The Septuagint render it, egrfrrjcrav \OJKT/JLOV<; TroXXou?, they
sought out many ratiocinations. We grope in a maze of uncertainties,
and so entangle ourselves the more. Our heavenly wisdom is lost by
our sin and rebellion, and instead thereof we have gotten a false carnal
wisdom, which is ' enmity to God,' Eorn. viii. 7, and only inclineth us
to a false happiness, James iii. 15, to the pleasures, honours, and profits
of the present world ; and so are given up to an injudicious mind, and
are left in the hands of our own counsel, which is the heaviest plague
that can light upon a reasonable creature : Ps. Ixxxi. 11, 12, 'But my
people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me ;
so I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their
own counsels/ For our own wisdom is an ill guide and counsellor, and
will never guide us aright in the way to true happiness, but lead us into
bogs and pits, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.
But keeping more closely to our own translation, let me a little open
this expression, ' They sought out many inventions.'
First, Observe that man is left to invent, and (since he left the
straight line of God's directions) to shift for an happiness for himself.
Surely it was better for us when we needed only to accept or submit ;
we never sped well since we would be our own carvers, and would
follow those new ways to blessedness which Satan and our own hearts
suggest to us ; as a runagate child or servant, that is not content with
the father's or master's finding, is driven to a thousand shifts. All our
inventions may be disproved by a double reason
1. They are insufficient to make us happy. We were made for God,
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 51
nnd cannot be happy again till we return to God. Being fallen from
God, in whose favour alone true happiness is to be found, we invent
false ways wherein we seek to attain happiness ; but after all our vain
pursuits, we can nowhere find rest for our souls. We have but a little
vainglory for that eternal glory which we have lost, a little brutish
pleasure for that fulness of joy which we might have in God's presence,
perishing vanities for the true riches ; so that we do but go about : Jer.
xxxi. 22, ' How long wilt thou go about, backsliding daughter ? '
We do but weary ourselves as long as we keep off from God ; you
meet with a broken cistern instead of the fountain : Jer. ii. 13, ' My
people have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can
hold no water.' You may drink many a puddle dry, and yet never
quench your thirst ; labour your hearts out, and yet not meet with that
which satisfieth : Isa. Iv. 2, ' Wherefore do ye spend your money for
that which is not bread ? and your labour for that which satisfieth not ?
Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let
your soul delight itself in fatness.' True rest and peace will only be
found in God reconciled to us in Christ.
2. They plunge us in farther misery. It is true both as to opinions
in religion and as to practice.
[1.] As to opinions in religion. If men apprehend some misery, how
vain are their inventions about the remedy ! All their devices show
how desperate the disease is. The philosophers, when they had found
out a god, yet were ' vain in their imaginations,' Rom. i. 21 ; when they
sat abrood on a religion, they hatched nothing but what was ridiculous :
'And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.' The
Egyptians, who vaunted themselves to be the fathers of all sciences,
worshipped onions and leeks, and their gods grew in their gardens;
they were planted and cultivated by their labourers before they were
worshipped by their princes. The Romans, who excelled all nations
for their morality and civility, made gods of all things, for war and
peace, fears and passions, agues and fevers. And still the religion of
heathens, Turks, and pagans are so far from being the remedy, that
they are a part of the disease, and remove man further off from God.
All men's inventions to pacify God's wrath do further provoke him :
Micah vi. 6, 7, ' Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow
myself before the high God ? Shall I come before him with burnt-
offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give
my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of
my soul ? ' Go to, false Christians ! it was never well with the world
since men were guided by inventions rather than institutions ; while
they hope by their own penances and exterior mortifications to appease
God, he is the more alienated from them.
[2.] So as to practice. Whilst instead of dependence and downright
simplicity they fly to their own shifts, and will help themselves rather
than trust God, they involve themselves the more. There is one prin
ciple of sincerity, to depend upon God's all-sufficiency : Gen. xvii. 1,
' I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect/ But they
that do not trust God cannot be true to him. When men will be in-
52 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
venting, and shift for their own happiness, they never carve to them
selves a good portion, but have enough of their devices at last. Besides,
our false happiness which we pursue after, and our inventions about
it, are not only vain, but pernicious and destructive : John iii. 19,
' And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.'
If we love our own dark counsels rather than God's provision 'for us
and the remedy offered to us, our case is the more doleful.
Secondly, Observe, these inventions are many. Here I shall inquire
(1.) What are these inventions ? (2.) Why many ?
First, What are these inventions ? We must distinguish
1. There are profitable inventions for the good of society and benefit
of mankind, such as are civil arts and disciplines, manufacture and
occupations, which conduce much to the good of the present world, and
do repair those natural defects which were introduced by the fall. Now,
though these are not intended in this place, yet two things I shall say
upon this occasion
[1.] The one is, that if man would have been contented to be at God's
finding, many of these would not have been needed ; such a deal of do
would not have been needful to man in innocency. It is sin hath made
so many necessities, and lust still multiplieth them.
[2.] The other is, that though since the fall we can find some remedy
for our natural defects, yet for the spiritual distempers of the heart we
can find no cure. By art man can melt the hardest metals, and make
them capable of any form, but to soften the heart, and make it capable
of God's image, that is past the skill of men or angels. There is no
creature so fierce but ' it is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind,'
James iii. 7 ; but yet man cannot tame his own heart ; it is God must
turn us, or we are never turned. How many inventions hath man
found out to repair the ruins of the fall ! Grammar and rhetoric to
polish our speech, logic to refine our reason, ethics to reform our
manners in civil converse, economics to govern families, politics to
model kingdoms and commonwealths ; but nothing to tame and subdue
the heart to God ? It is God that ' createth in us a clean heart, and
reneweth a right spirit/ Ps. li. 10 ; even he that made it at first.
2. There are sinful inventions, taken in a more limited sense, for
those exquisite studied ways of sin wherewith many please themselves ;
as we read of some that were ' inventors of evil things/ Kom. i. 30, who
find out such wickedness as the world was never acquainted with before ;
as new-fashioned oaths, lusts, torments. This argueth the height of
wickedness ; and such are the more corrupt of the corrupt sort of men.
These are not principally intended in this place, yet may be comprised
here.
3. The inventions here intended are such as by which we start away
from God and corrupt ourselves. This more general sense of the words
compriseth two sorts of inventions
[1.] Those many crooked counsels and devices whereunto men are
carried by their own corrupt hearts, when once they had forsaken God
and the straight rule of his law. We read, Jer. xvii. 9, ' That the
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ; who can
know it?' There is a bottomless, unsearchable depth of wickedness
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 53
in the heart of man, which none can discover but God ; it is wily, fraudu
lent, prone to deceive, full of windings and turnings, wiles and sleights ;
no creature in wicked subtlety and dissembling can go beyond him.
The scripture delighteth in this term, ' inventions ' and ' imaginations ; '
Gen. vi. 5, 'All the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart were only
evil continually ; ' and Jer. xviii. 12, ' We will walk after our own
devices, and we will every one do the imaginations of his evil heart.'
The heart of man is in continual action, framing and moulding things
within itself ; and because there are many cunning fetches and secret
devices within the heart, by which they seek to put out their own eyes,
that they may not apprehend themselves to be so vile and filthy as
indeed they are, and a deceitful heart smooths evil, and presents it
under another notion, therefore they may be called, and are in scripture
called, ' devices ' and ' inventions.' There is so much remainder of light
and conscience since the fall, that there needeth a great deal of craft to
varnish sin, to insinuate it with any satisfaction to the conscience ; a
great deal of diligence to compass it, and a great deal of art to hide it
from the world, that it may not make us hateful or obnoxious to dis
grace and disrespect ; and to hide it from ourselves, that we may live
in it with greater leave and allowance from those remainders of reason
which are yet left within us. True wisdom is plain and simple $ it
needeth no disguises to palliate it from the judgment of conscience or
the notice of the world : 'Wisdom is justified of her children ; ' Mat.
xi. 19, ' This is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience, that in
simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God, we have had our conversation in the world,' 2 Cor. i. 12. But
with sin it is not so ; there are many inventions for the hiding, palliat
ing, excusing, and defending of sin ; it is the great power of the word
to discover them : Heb. iv. 12, ' For the word of God is quick and
powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' These are the
most secret acts of the soul. Intentions respect the end, thoughts
respect consultations about the means. There is an artificial dexterous
managery of sin : Eph. ii. 3, ' Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of
the mind,' OeX^'j^iara rrj<j crap/cos KOI r&v Siavoiwv, that is, imaginations
and lusts. Now of these inventions I shall say two things
(1 ) The more studiously and dexterously any sin is carried on, it
argueth the worse temper of spirit, and the sin is the more aggravated :
' To be wise to do evil,' Jer. iv. 22 ; ' To devise iniquity, and work evil
upon our beds,' Micah ii. 1 ; ' The wicked plotteth against the just,
and gnasheth upon him with his teeth,' Ps. xxxvii. 12. The subtle
designer of sin is worse than he that occasionally lapseth into it. The
good may be overtaken or overborne, but to dig deep to hide our wicked
ness, and sit abrood upon it, is the greatest evil.
(2.) That sinful inventions for the hiding and palliating of sin never
succeed well, but involve us the more. I shall not instance in the worst
of men, how they are forced to add sin to sin, and help out one wicked
ness with another, which at last bringeth upon them the feared evil
with the greater violence ; but even in the best of men, that you may
the more loath these sinful inventions. David had many inventions to
51 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
cloak his sin with Bathsheba, but how ill did they succeed at last !
When sin hath got a tie upon a man, and a man hath done some evil
from which he cannot well acquit himself but with some loss and
, shame or other inconvenience, then it is a mighty snare, unless he cover
it or maintain it, or some other way help himself by adding some other
sin to it. Thus usually in this case men have their inventions, shift
off a fault with a lie, and imagine it in a sort necessary for their safety
to be evil ; and out of this seeming necessity heap and pile up sin upon
sin, and transgression upon transgression. This, I say, was David's
case in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah. Surely he had never pro
ceeded to such black thoughts, to plot the murder of a person so worthy
and innocent, but to salve his credit and cover his dishonest act, when
other arts and shifts failed and took no effect. Admit one sin, and the
devil taketh this advantage, that he will force us for the defence of
that to yield to more. Thus Sarah's unbelieving laughter brought
forth a lie : Gen. xviii. 12-15, ' Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed
not ; for she was afraid.' Peter, when he had denied his master with
a plain single denial, ' I know not the man,' Mat. xxvi. 70, he proceedeth
after to a denial with oaths and execrations : ' Then began he to curse
and to swear, saying, I know not the man,' ver. 74. If he had pre
vented the first sin with ordinary courage and boldness, he had not thus
entangled himself; but one sin must help out another, though still to
our loss and trouble. Eudoxia, wife to Theodosius junior, having
received of the emperor her husband an apple of incredible beauty and
bigness, gave it to one Paulinus, a learned man, whom she prized ; he,
not knowing whence the empress had received it, presents it as a rare
gift to the emperor, who thereupon sending for his wife, asked her for
the apple ; she, fearing her husband's displeasure if she should say she
had given it away, answered she had eaten it ; upon this afterwards
the emperor produceth it, and in his jealousy killeth innocent Paulinus,
and hateth his wife. If she had not told an untruth at first, she had
not fallen into the sin of lying ; but giving way a little, she is drawn
into a greater sin, her innocent friend lost his life, and she her husband's
favour ever afterwards. All this is spoken that we may beware of evil
inventions, which never succeed well, nor to the content of the party
that useth them.
[2.] These inventions are put for our pursuits after a false happiness.
True happiness is only to be found in the favour of God, and in the
way appointed by God ; but man would be at his own dispose, and
would invent and find out an happiness for himself, and be sufficient
to himself for his own blessedness, without any dependence upon God.
Now, when man was thus fallen off from God, God was disobliged from
providing for him, and so man is left to his own shifts. But alas !
how ill doth he provide for himself ! This being the very thing
intended in the text, I shall a little more amply dilate upon it in
several propositions.
(1.) When man fell from God, he fell from him tanquam aprincipio
etjine, from dependence upon him as the first cause, and respect to
him as his chief good and last end. His dependence was loosened,
because he distrusted God's provision for him, and would be a god to
himself, his own principle, rule, and end ; live from himself to himself,
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 55
according to his own will. So that self-love came in the place of love
to God ; he that before sought nothing but God, began now to seek
himself, and thought he should find in himself what he lost in God.
(2.) Man being once off from God, never of himself cometh on again,
but rangeth infinitely, being guided by his own will and wit : Jonah
ii. 8, ' They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies.'
Man being fastened to such objects as he liketh, keepeth aloof from
God, whom he liketh not, and will not come at him as long as he can
make a shift without him : Jer. ii. 31, ' We are lords ; we will come no
more unto tb.ee/ And though he wandereth hither and thither, he
finds no rest for his soul, for he seeketh happiness where it is not to be
found, in the riches, honours, and pleasures of the present life.
(3.) Though he meet with often disappointments, yet he is unwilling
to return even after God hath showed a remedy, and brought life and
immortality to light in the gospel, in which way he may have peace
and happiness, and so rest for his soul. God hath showed us the way
to rest: Jer. vi. 16, 'Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and
walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls ; ' Mat. xi. 28, ' Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.' But yet man is for his shifts still, till God changeth his heart
and giveth him counsel in his reins, and disappoints him in his worldly
inventions and pursuits, by blasting the creature, or occasioning some
wound in his conscience. God speaketh often in his word, but it is
disregarded till he speak by real arguments, and speak to the quick,
so as to force an hearing ; till he take away their comforts, or take away
their use of them, by some languishing sickness or anguish in their own
conscience, or both ; by smiting them with a rod dipped in guilt :
' When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest
his beauty to consume away like a moth/ Ps. xxxix. 11 ; so that then
they see the fruitlessness of all their inventions, their vain pleasures,
costly buildings, great honour and riches, how little these can stead
them against the wrath of an angry God. So loath is man to submit
God's remedy ; he laboureth all that he can to patch up his sorry
lappiness, and is very unwilling to confess his misery ; he turneth and
windeth every way, and seeketh help from the creature before he will
be brought to implore aid from grace ; he will use all means within
his grasp and reach, till his despair teach him to return from whence
he fell, and that it is better to seek God's favour than continue his vain
pursuits : Hosea ii. 7, ' I will return to my first husband, for then it
was better with me than now/
Secondly, Why many inventions ?
1. In opposition to that one straight line which leadeth to true
happiness. Christ telleth us, ' One thing is necessary,' Luke x. 42,
namely, to serve and please God, and enjoy him for ever. To enjoy
God and please him is that one thing which is enough. But error is
manifold ; though there be but' one path to heaven, yet there are many
ways of sinning and going to hell. Every man hath his several course
and way of sinning : Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray ;
we have turned every one to his own way ; ' according to the several
constitutions and business and affairs of men. Velle suum cuique est,
nee voto vivitur uno. As the channel is cut, so corrupt nature in every
56 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
man findeth an issue and passage. No sin cometh amiss to a carnal
heart, yet some are more kindly and suitable ; one is worldly, another
sensual, another proud and ambitious. It is our wisdom to observe
our own haunt, and the tender parts of our souls : Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was
upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.' All sin is
but carnal self-love disguised ; or many, with respect to the successive
entertainment of divers sins : Titus iii. 3, ' Serving divers lusts and
pleasures.' Sins take the throne by turns. By age and experience
men grow weary of former vanities, but others are adopted into their
room, and so tlieir lusts are but exchanged, not abrogated. Now we
are fallen from our primitive happiness, we multiply means and cares ;
yea, at the same time the pleasures of the flesh draw the sinner several
ways : James iv. 1, ' Whence come wars and fightings among you ?
Come they not hence, even of your lusts, which war in your members ? '
Desire of riches contradicts idleness, and the toilsome cares and labours
of this world that ease which the flesh affecteth ; disgraceful lusts are
contradicted by ambition and pride.
2. Many inventions, in opposition to that simplicity and singleness
of heart which original rectitude did include. The heart of man was
originally of one constant, uniform frame ; but now, instead of simpli
city, there is a multiplicity. The heart now is never right till it be
one with God. Therefore David prays, Ps. Ixxxvi. 11, ' Unite my heart
to fear thy name.' He begs a heart entirely fixed upon God, who, as
our great end, uniteth all our affections in this one scope, that we might
please him, and enjoy him as our chief good and last end ; that fixeth
man's mind ; which otherwise will be tossed up and down in perpetual
uncertainties, and distracted by a multiplicity of ends and objects, that
it cannot continue in any composed and settled frame. No one part
of our lives will agree with another. A divided heart breedeth an un
certain life : James i. 8, 'A double-minded man is unstable in all his
ways ; ' the whole not firmly knit together by the power of the last end
running through all ; so that our lives are a mere lottery, the fancies
and appetites we are governed by being jumbled together by chance.
The heart by natural corruption is loosed from God, and distracted with
variety of vain objects, which offer themselves to our senses. The
interest of the world and flesh is taken into competition with God ; and
whilst the heart rangeth abroad, it is such a variable and double heart
as will never be true to God; and while men are tossed from one
dependence to another, and do not firmly adhere to God, being weaned
from the vanities of the world, they are carried hither and thither by
their perverse affections, sometimes to one thing, sometimes to another.
3. With respect to that one object who alone was sufficient for us.
They that have left God, and would find happiness in the creatures,
need many creatures before they can patch up any sorry tolerable
happiness to themselves. One broken cistern can yield but little
refreshing, Jer. ii. 13 ; so many disappointments make them look more
about. God made man for himself, capable to enjoy him ; now he is
an infinite eternal good. We desire an infinite eternal good, still such
as may quiet and satisfy us; therefore man being made capable of
enjoying God, who is infinite, and finding himself not satisfied with a
few or many things, always seeketh after new things. Here is his
SEKMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 57
error, that he seeketh after that which is infinite, among those things
which are finite, and so wandereth up and down groping for an eternal
good : Acts xvii. 26, 27, ' And hath made of one blood all nations of
men for to dwell on the face of the earth ; and determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitations ; that they should
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though
he be not far from every one of us.' As we depart from God, we are
gone from unity, and are left distracted and confounded in the multi
tude of the creatures. Qucerunt in varietate creaturarum, quod
amiserunt in unitate creatoris They seek in the variety of the
creatures what they have lost in the one God.
Use 1. Is to represent the-. misery of fallen man, that we may take
up a lamentation for him, and bewail our departure from life and
blessedness, and forsaking it for sin and misery. They have cast off
God, and set at nought his counsel, and given themselves over to many
fruitless and hurtful inventions. For alas ! man being left to the
counsel of his own desperately wicked and deceitful heart, what doth he
look after ? What may be expected from him but that all his thoughts
and projects should be for the satisfaction of his lusts, to serve his pride,
avarice, revenge, pomp, pleasure, and vanity ? God is not in all his
thoughts ; he cares not whether he be pleased or displeased, honoured
or dishonoured.
Here consider the disorder and danger of this state.
1. The disorder introduced hereby.
[1.] The creature is preferred before God ; for all their projects are
how to live at ease in the world, not how to please and enjoy God ; and
so they ' forsake their own mercies for observing lying vanities/ Jonah
ii. 8. They seek an happiness apart from God, who is ' their own mercy ; '
that is, they might have had from him all that which the mercy of an
all-sufficient God can afford. And for what do they forsake him ? For
' tying vanities.' In regard of their emptiness they are vanities ; and
in regard of their disappointing our expectations, ' lying vanities.' They
do deceive us with a vain show, and in the issue miserable disappoint
ments. And mark, these must be observed, followed after with a great
solicitude and care, whereas the other is freely offered to us ; it is our
own in the offer, and it is our own fault if it be not our own in the
choice. So Jer. ii. 13, ' My people have committed two evils ; they have
forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns, that will hold no water.' God is the well-
spring of all manner of good, a fountain that runneth constantly, and
never faileth ; and such would he have been to us if we had continued
loyal and dutiful to him. Besides the leaving of the ever-living, all-
sufficient, and ever-flowing fountain of all good, they have betaken
themselves to poor paltry vanities, that will yield them no real and solid
refreshment.
[2.] The body is preferred before the soul ; for all our inventions run
upon the body and the pleasing the flesh : Horn. xiii. 14, ' And make
not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.' But the precious
and immortal soul is little thought of and cared for. They sit down
well appaid with carnal contentments : Luke xii. 19, ' Soul, take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry ; thou hast much goods laid up for many
years.' They do not rise to any thoughts of an higher life, never think
58 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
of that immortal soul they carry about with them, but only use it to
cater for the body, that the body may be well fed, and clothed, and
adorned. Our business is to seek rest for our souls ; if we would invent
and consider, we should look after that : Jer. vi. 16, ' Ask for the old
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls.' We are never in our wits again till this be the project
and design we travel with. But alas ! this is not thought of. The
neglected soul may easily complain of hard usage. What are our
thoughts but what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and how shall
we make a fair show in the flesh ? If we look after the soul, it is to
adorn it with secular learning and wisdom, which is but to serve the
flesh in a more cleanly manner, and to gratify our worldly ends, our
pride, or our interests. We look after flowers rather than fruit ; those
adornments of the soul which are for pomp rather than life, and for
present use rather than eternal benefit.
[3.] They prefer earth before heaven and time before eternity. All
their business is rather to make sure of the prosperity of the body than
the salvation of the soul. And though it is plain, and they do or may
know and see that this will not cure their diseases, nor ease their pain,
nor save them from the grave nor hell, yet because riches will help them
to live in pleasure and reputation with the world, and in plenty of all
things, and to have their will as long as they live, that is enough for
them, for they care not for the pleasures and happiness which are to be
enjoyed in the other world. Though death and the grave may put an
end to all they have here much sooner than they imagined, yet their
minds and hearts are set upon these things as their happiness, and will
not be diverted from them ; they have their portion in this world : Ps.
xvii. 14, ' From men which are thy hand, Lord ; from men of the
world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest
with thy hid treasure : they are full of children, and leave the rest of
their substance to their babes.'
2. The danger. As it is a base thing to act so disproportionably to
the light of reason, so within a little while it will be a bitter thing : Jer.
ii. 19, ' Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings
shall reprove thee ; know therefore and see, that it is an evil thing and
bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is
not in thee.' Sure it will be bitterness in the end to forsake the Lord,
and walk in the inventions and imaginations of thine own heart. You
are posting to your eternal misery, where a reflection upon your evil
choice will be the greatest part of your misery : Isa. 1. 11, ' Behold, all
ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks ; walk
in the light of your fire, and the sparks which ye have kindled : this
shall ye have of my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.' The allusion
is not to such a fire as burneth and consumeth, but such as doth warm
and cherish. Those stakes which wicked worldlings rely upon for
succour will in time prove their greatest calamities, and those tufts and
fuzes which they promised the greatest comfort to themselves from
will occasion the greatest sorrow ; the brands which they heaped
together will afford them little heat and light, but smoke to vex
and choke them. He that will warm himself by his own sparks can
expect no other issue from his own rash folly and God's righteous
vengeance.
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29. 59
Use 2. To exhort us not only to lament it, but to come out of this
condition. And here to this end
1. Kenounce that crooked carnal wisdom which is man's undoing.
Man at first seeking to be wise, became a fool. Now ' he must be a fool,
that he may be wise/ 1 Cor. iii. 18 ; a fool to the flesh and the world,
that he may be wise to God.
2. Give up yourselves to God in covenant, as your Lord and felicity.
A man is never in his wits till he cometh to this : Ps. xxii. 27, ' All
the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.' Our
misery is in departing from him, so our happiness is in putting ourselves
into his hands again. Now you must give up yourselves to him as
your supreme Lord and chief felicity or happiness, depending upon him
as your happiness, obeying him as your Lord ; obey his counsel though
against your own reason, and stick to his ways though they seem to be
against your present happiness. Kemember that duty is safety, that
cleaving to God with loss is better than departing from him with
seeming gain ; and God, that outwits the subtle designer, doth take
care of and preserve the plain and simple person, that avowedly adhereth
to him, when all the contrivances of foolish and worldly-minded men
prove vain and unprosperous. Your obedience will be your safety.
Dependence and obedience do mutually cherish one another ; the more
we depend, the more we obey ; and the more we obey, the more we
depend ; and so they discover one another. Let us show our depen
dence on God, that in all the changes of this life, by a firm, fast adhe
rence and resolution, we stick fast to God, whatever comes of it, using
no means but what he allows, and counting his favour our happiness.
They that depend not on him are left to their own inventions.
3. Your great design must be to approve yourselves to God : 2 Cor.
v. 9, ' Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may
be accepted of the Lord.'
Use 3. It showeth what need we have to give up ourselves to the
conduct of God's word and Spirit Man is so full of his own inventions
that none can be safe but they that depend upon God for direction :
James i. 5, ' If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God.' Such a
fallible creature as man is in point of truth, such an impotent creature
is he in point of power, such an indigent creature in point of happiness
and self-sufficiencies, such a sinful corrupt creature, so full of imagina
tions and lusts, so many crooked dispositions in his heart, so many wiles
to justify his irregular choice, so many temptations, and they represented
with such sophistry, that he should be willing to accept of direction.
Yea, the people of God themselves have need of the direction of the
word, in regard of the weakness of their understandings and the per-
verseness of their affections.
1. Our understandings are so weak, that we are ignorant of many
things necessary to be known ; for we know but in part. If we know
something in general, we fail in particular application ; both in general
and in particular. If we know things habitually, we do not actually
consider them, being hindered by multitude of business, or the violence
of temptations, or lulled asleep by the pleasures of the flesh : Eccles. v.
1, ' They consider not that they do evil/
2. Our affections are perverse, and so addicted rather to be led by
60 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES VII. 29.
sense than right reason, that there is great danger lest, seeing and ap
proving that which is better, we follow what is worse, contrary to our
knowledge and conscience : Rom. ii. 18, ' And knowest his will, and
approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of
the law.' And therefore the best had need to pray with David : Ps.
cxliii. 10, ' Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God : thy Spirit
is good ; lead me into the land of uprightness.'
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall
return unto God that gave it. ECCLES. xii. 7.
IN the beginning of this chapter Solomon presseth us to remember our
creator while yet young : many have been too late acquainted with
God, but never any too soon. His arguments are
1. From the wearisome evils of old age, very rhetorically described
in ver. 2-6, ' While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars be
not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain : in the day when
the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow
themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and those that
look out of the windows be darkened ; and the doors shall be shut
in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low ; and he shall
rise up at the voice of the bird ; and all the daughters of music shall
be brought low : also when they shall be afraid of that which is high,
and fear shall be in the way, and the almond-tree shall flourish, and
the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail ; because man
goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets : or ever
the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher
be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.' That
is a time of expense, and neegleth cordials rather than work and service.
Therefore, while the prints of God's creating bounty are fresh upon us,
it is best to exercise ourselves to godliness.
2. From the certain approach of death, as the final issue of the pre
sent life ; therefore we should prepare for this change, think of God
betimes, and secure a better life before this come to the last period.
This argument is in the text, ' Then shall the dust return to the earth,'
&c. Man consists of a body and a soul ; the text telleth you what shall
become of both.
1. Here is represented the state of the body after death.
2. The state of the soul.
1. The state of the body ; it shall be resolved into the matter out
of which it was made. Dust it was in its composition, and dust it
shall be in its dissolution : ' Then shall the dust return to the earth as
it was.'
2. The state of the soul in the other world : ' And the spirit shall
return to God that gave it.' Where
[1.] The nature of it, or what kind of substance the soul is ; it is a
spirit, or an immaterial substance.
62 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
[2.] The author of it, who is God ; he gave it ; he gave us the body
too, but the soul in a more especial manner.
[3.] The disposal of it, or in what state it remaineth after death ; it
returneth to God. It is not extinguished when the body is dissolved into
dust, nor doth it vanish into the air, but returneth to God.
All true wisdom consisteth in the knowledge of God and ourselves ;
we cannot know ourselves unless we know the parts of which we do
consist. This text giveth you a right notion of them both ; for it telleth
you what they are, and what shall become of them. They are con
joined, but distinct ; and therefore, when the union betwixt them is
dissolved, they go several ways. We are concerned in them both, but
more in the soul, which hath the pre-eminence above the body. The
one is visible, and therefore its changes are known ; but the other is
invisible, and therefore more unknown ; but the state of both is equally
certain, for as certainly as the body returneth to the dust, so doth the
soul return to God.
First, For the first branch, ' Then shall the body return to the earth
as it was,' I shall not stay upon it.
1. It giveth you the right notion of the body ; it is but dust moulded
up into a comely shape, which is an effect of God's wisdom and power,
to make such a curious frame out of the dust of the ground. We read
in the history of the plagues of Egypt, that the magicians were not
able so much as to bring forth lice out of the dust of the ground, Exod.
viii. 18, 19 ; but God could raise such a beautiful structure as man's
body is. But though it speaketh God's power, yet it showeth our frailty.
Our body is here called ' dust ; ' it is not brass, or iron, or stone, or
stiff clay, but dust, and shall return to the earth as it was. Dust hath
no coherence or consistence, but is easily scattered with every puff of
wind ; so is our earthly or dusty tabernacle with every blast of God's
displeasure : Gen. xviii. 27, ' Behold, now I have taken upon me to
Bpeak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes ; ' Isa. xl. 15, ' Behold,
the nations are as a drop of the bucket, and they are counted as the
small dust of the balance.'
2. What shall become of it ? ' It shall return to the earth as it was ; '
Gen. iii. 19, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return ; ' Ps. civ.
29, ' Thou takest away their breath ; they die and return to their dust ; '
Ps. cxlvi. 4, ' He returneth to his earth.' Which should teach us to
take care for a better estate : 2 Cor. v. 1, ' For we know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' The
soul dwelleth now in an earthly house ; it should look out for a more
glorious mansion.
Secondly, Of the soul three things are spoken, which are so many
arguments to prove its immortality, which is the subject I mainly
intend
1.. The kind of it ; it is a spirit. The matter of which the body is
made is the earth, and so it is still maintained : ' He bringeth forth food
for them out of the earth,' Ps. civ. 14 ; and so breedeth and casteth
out corruption every day ; but the soul is a simple substance, not com
pounded of corruptible principles, and therefore cannot be resolved into
any. The body liveth by the soul and from the soul, but the soul de-
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 63
pendeth upon nothing but God. The argument is good ; it is incor
poreal and immaterial, therefore immortal ; for mortality hath reference
to some compounded substance, which hath in itself some principle and
cause of motion, as well as a material and passive part, that may be
moved by that principle, and signifieth no more but a capacity of the
material and passive part to be deprived of the inward and active prin
ciple of its motion. In short, if the soul die, it must be from the violence
of some external power, or some principles of corruption within ; not
by violence without : Mat. x. 28, ' And fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul.' And it hath no principles of
corruption, whereby it should destroy itself, for it is a spirit.
2. The author ; 'God gave it.' Our bodies are also his workmanship,
but the soul is immediately framed by God, both in the first creation
and the continual propagation of mankind. At the first creation, we
read the body was created out of the earth or the dust of the ground,
but the soul out of nothing, but immediately breathed into Adam by
God : Gen. ii. 7, ' And the Lord formed man out of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became
a living soul.' And still the soul is immediately created by God :
Zech. xii. 1, ' He stretcheth forth the heavens, and laid the foundation
of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him/ The creating
of the soul is reckoned among the works of his omnipotency : Heb. xii.
9, ' FurthermoEe, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us,
and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in sub
jection unto the Father of spirits ? ' The fathers of our flesh are
distinguished from the Father of spirits. Our natural parents under
God are the instruments of our natural and earthly being, as they
procured the matter out of which our bodies were derived ; they are
T?}? (rap/cos Trarepas, ' the fathers of our flesh,' but God is 'jrartjp irvev-
/j,dva)v, ' The Father of our spirits.' The spirit of man runneth not in
the material channel of fleshly descent; it is not educed out of the
power of the matter, but immediately made by God.
3. The disposal of it. When it flitteth out of the body, 'it returneth
to God ; ' that is, to God as a judge, to be disposed of by him into its
everlasting estate. God challengeth souls as his, or belonging to his
government, as universal king and judge of the world : Ezek. xviii. 4,
' All souls are mine.' He will give to every one according to his works,
adjudging and sentencing them either to heaven, the mansion of the
blessed, or 'spirits of just men made perfect,' Heb. xii. 23, or to hell,
the place where damned spirits are kept in prison : 1 Peter iii. 19,
' He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.' The body is not
said to return to God, but to return to the earth as it was ; but the
soul is said to return to God ; therefore the whole man dieth not, and
is not extinguished with the body. All these particulars import the
immortality of the soul.
Doct. That the soul of man is immortal, and dieth not when the
body dieth, but remaineth in that estate into which it is disposed by
God.
First, There is a threefold immortality
1. An essential immortality, which importeth an absolute necessity
of existence ; so it is said, 1 Tim. vi. 16, ' God only hath immortality.'
64 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
2. There is a natural immortality, which hath a foundation in the
being of the creatures ; so the angels and spirits of men are in their
nature immortal, so as they cannot be destroyed by any second cause,
and have no principle of corruption in themselves, though by the power
of God they might be annihilated.
3. A gratuitous immortality, or by gift and courtesy ; so the body
of Adam in innocency, non conditione corporis, but benefitio conditoris ;
not by the condition of his body, but the bounty of his maker : so the
bodies of the faithful after the resurrection shall be immortal.
Secondly, Let us prove this, that the soul is immortal, and subsisteth
after the separation. The point is necessary to be discussed ; for till
we are established in the belief of this truth, we shall fear no greater
judgments than what do befall us in this world, nor expect greater
mercies than what we enjoy here ; and so never take care to reconcile
ourselves to God, or to deny the profits of the world and the pleasures
of sense, that we may attain a better estate. An holy life will never
else be endeavoured or produced to any good increase ; for such as
men's belief is of an immortal or never-dying condition in heaven or
hell, such will the bent of their hearts and course of life be ; there
fore the salvation of our souls is said to be the end of our faith : 1
Peter i. 9, '^Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your
souls.' There the ' end ' signifieth either the scope or the event ; if
you take it for the scope, the great end of faith is to lead us from all
worldly happiness to an estate after this life : Heb. x. 39, 'But we are
not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to
the saving of the soul.' Sense saith, Spare the flesh ; but faith saith,
Save the soul. This is the scope and mark to which it tendeth. If
you take it for the event and issue of things, all our believing, praying,
enduring suffering, rejoicing, pleasing, and glorifying of God, endeth
in this, the saving of our souls. Therefore let us see how it may be
proved, both by scripture and by the light of reason.
I. By scripture, which is the proper means to beget faith. Dives
desired one to go from the dead to tell his brethren of an everlasting
estate of torment and bliss : Luke xvi. 27, 28, ' I pray thee, father,
that thou wouldst send him to my father's house ; for I have five
brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this
place of torment ; ' intimating thereby that the cause of his own sin
and theirs was unbelief, or a not being persuaded of a world to come.
Alas ! we have but an obscure prospect of an estate after this life, and
therefore indulge sensual delights. But what cure and remedy? Dives
thought a spectre or apparition would be the best cure of this atheism ;
but Abraham or Christ thought otherwise : he referreth them to Moses
and the prophets ; that is, the holy scriptures, for all the books then
written and received in the church are comprised in that expression.
Since we are sick of the same disease, this will be our best remedy.
We are told, 2 Tim. i. 10, that Christ ' hath brought life and immor
tality to light through the gospel.' It is the privilege of the divine
revelation to represent this truth with more clearness and certainty.
1. With more clearness. There is a mist upon eternity, which is
only dispelled by the light of the gospel. Keasons from nature may
in some measure acquaint us with an everlasting estate, yet what kind
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 65
of happiness it is that attendeth the godly, and what misery shall befall
the wicked, it telleth us but little ; but the scripture sets down enough
to invite our hopes and awaken our fears. Heathens had some conceits
of Elysian fields and places of blessedness, and some obscure caverns
appointed to be places of torment, fitted to work men into a blind
superstition ; but the word of God hath given us such clear discoveries
of future happiness and misery as that we may know what to hope
for and what to fear ; and if well improved, will breed in us a true
spirit of godliness.
2. In regard of certainty. Nature may give us some dark guesses
and uncertain conjectures, so as the heathens, that had no other light,
were ready to say and unsay in a breath what they had spoken con
cerning our estate to come ; but the gospel is a sure word, apt to beget
faith, not a wavering opinion. Go to sense, which judgeth by the
outside of things : Eccles. iii. 21, ' Who knoweth the spirit of a man
that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward to
the earth ? ' By sense we see mankind, as the beasts, to be conceived,
formed in the belly, brought forth, nourished, to grow in strength and
stature, wax old, and die ; by the eye we can discern no external sen
sible difference ; so that if we consult with mere sense, all religion and
hope is gone. Go to reason, and that will tell us indeed that there is
a difference between a man and a beast; that man knoweth and desireth
things which the beasts do not and. cannot ; and that the reasonable
soul hath operations independent of matter and of the body, and there
fore it is probable it can subsist without the body ; for the manner of
working showeth the manner of being. But there is cold comfort in a
bare may-be. The gospel showeth it shall be. As a glass, it doth
discover this state to us ; as a rule, it guideth us to the enjoyment of
it ; as a motive, it persuadeth us to seek after it ; as a charter and grant,
it doth assure our title to it : it is full fraught and thick sown with this
kind of seed.
Therefore let us see what the light of scripture saith to this point.
[1.] It discovereth to us everywhere the doctrine of the eternal
recompenses, two places, and two estates, wherein souls abide after death,
heaven and hell : heaven, the mansion of the just : John xiv. 2, ' In my
Father's house are many mansions.' And hell, the place of torments:
Mark ix. 44, ' They are cast into hell, where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched.' And as soon as the soul passeth out of the
body, it is in one of these : Luke xvi. 22, 23, ' And it came to pass that
the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom ;
the rich man died also, and was buried : and in hell he lifted up his
eyes, being in torments.' He had a pompous funeral here upon earth;
for it is said, ' he died, and was buried,' which is not said of Lazarus.
These are truths not spoken of once or twice, but everywhere.
[2.] The covenant showeth it, which is God's solemn transaction with
his subjects, and consists of precepts or laws, invested with the sanction
of promises and threatenings. Christ argues thus : Luke xx. 37, 38,
' Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he
calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob ; for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 7
He proves the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.
VOL. XIX. E
66 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XIT. 7.
(1.) His commands ; all of them imply such an estate, and some of
them express it. All imply it ; as faith in Christ. We believe in his name
to obtain eternal life: John xx. 31, ' But these things are written, that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that
believing you might have have life through his name ; ' and John v.
24, 'He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life.' Kepentance : Acts iii. 19, 'Kepent ye, therefore, and
Ibe converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of
refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.' Therefore it is
called ' repentance unto salvation,' 2 Cor. vii. 10 ; and ' repentance to
life ; ' Acts xi. 18, ' Then hath God also to the gentiles granted repent
ance unto life.' So new obedience : Heb. v. 9, ' He became the author
of eternal salvation to all that obey him ; ' Acts xxvi. 7. ' Unto which
promise the twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to
come.' And some express it : He hath commanded us ' not to labour
for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life,' John vi. 27 ; ' Not to lay up treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal ;
but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven/ Mat. vi. 19, 20 ; and
' Strive to enter in at the strait gate,' Luke xiii. 24. Now, if there were
no such thing, all these commands would be in vain. Would God
flatter us into a fool's paradise, and command us to look after a thing
of nought ?
(2.) The sanction. And there (1.) The threatening, which is dam
nation, or the second death : Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth not shall
be damned.' Is this a vain scarecrow ? and need God govern his sub
jects by a cheat or a lie ? (2.) The promises ; he promiseth eternal
life to them that obey the gospel and seek after this immortality : Eom.
ii. 7, ' To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for
glory, honour, and immortality, eternal life ; ' Kev. ii. 10, 'Be thou
faithful to death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' Be faithful in
making good your baptismal vow, improving talents, withstanding
temptations. So to comfort us against fears, losses, and sorrows :
Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure
to give you a kingdom.' Now, would God overreach us, and lead us
with chimeras and vain hopes ?
[3.] The mediator of the new covenant showethit ; his coming from
heaven, the place of souls, the region of spirits, and his going thither
again at his ascension.
(1.) His coming from heaven. Wherefore was Christ incarnate, and
clothed with our flesh, but that we might be apparelled with his glory ?
John x. 10, ' I am come, that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly.' To lay a foundation for our eternal
happiness.
(2.) His going to heaven, his entering into that glory he spake of,
and so giving a visible demonstration to the world of the reality of it :
1 Peter i. 21, ' Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from
the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope may be in God.'
There he remaineth at God's right hand, to open heaven to all believers.
Christ, when he died, recommended his spirit to the Father : Luke
xxiii. 46, ' Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' And so
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 67
do believers to Christ : Acts vii. 59, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'
If the soul did perish with the body, why should we commit it to
Christ ?
[4.] The Holy Spirit is given to form and prepare us for this estate,
therefore by consequence to assure us of it : 2 Cor. v. 5, ' Now he that
hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God, who hath also given unto
us the earnest of the Spirit.' .
(1.) Look to the graces of the Spirit. We are made partakers of
the divine nature to draw us off from the world to heaven : 2 Peter i.
4, ' Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that
by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust.' Now will God fit the
soul for such a blessed estate when this life is ended ; and shall we
never enjoy it ? If we consider the soul not only as being an inward
principle of life and sense, but also of reason, it proveth the immortality
of it, much more as sanctified and ennobled by grace : Horn. viii. 10,
' The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of right
eousness.' Believers have a life wrought in them by the Spirit, which
is the pledge and beginning of eternal life ; for they are sanctified and
purified, and fit to be brought into the sight and presence of God. The
apostle doth not draw his argument there from the immortality of the
soul, for that is common to good and bad ; the wicked have a soul that
will survive the body, but little to their comfort ; their immortality
is not an happy immortality ; but he taketh his argument from the
new life wrought in us by the Spirit, which is the beginning and
earnest of a blessed immortality : the new life is an eternal principle of
happiness.
(2.) Look to the comforts of the Spirit, from the love of God and the
hopes of glory : 1 Peter i. 8, ' Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom,
though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeak
able and full of glory ; ' Rom. v. 2, ' And rejoice in hope of the glory
of God.' Now is it a fancy that holy men rejoice in ? Look, as the
terrors of a wounded conscience are the foretastes of hell-torments,
called somewhere the pains of hell, so the comforts of the Spirit are the
first-fruits of heavenly joys, to set us a-longing for more : Eom. viii.
23, ' And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' Now by all these things
let us rouse up a drowsy faith, and triumph over that carnal atheism
and unbelief that worketh in our hearts. Is the whole scripture false,
and the Christian religion a well-devised fable, our Kedeemer an impos
tor, and the covenant of God a dream, and the comforts of the Spirit
fanatical illusions ? And were they all deceived that embraced the
Christian religion, that took such pains in subduing the flesh, so freely
hazarded their interests, and life itself, on the promises of Christ and
the hopes of another world ? Are the wisest men the world ever saw
fools, and the ordinances of Christ a customary superstition, and these
rejoicings and foretastes of the children of God a mere deceit and im
posture ? Surely it cannot be. Therefore this is true, that the soul
dieth not with the body, but is in that estate into which God dispos-
eth it.
68 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
I
II. By the light of reason.
First, I shall urge such arguments as the scripture directeth us to.
1. From the nature of the soul. It is a spirit, and such a principle
of life as hath light in it : John i. 4, ' In him was life, and the life was
the light of men.' The soul of man differeth from the soul of a beast,
for that hath only life and sense in it ; but this hath light, and there
fore was designed to more noble and glorious ends than merely to
quicken and enliven the body. The soul of the beast is mortal, because it
is created only to serve the body, and knoweth nothing, desireth nothing,
delighteth in nothing but what belongeth to the pleasure and welfare
of the body ; but now the soul of man apprehendeth things past, pre
sent, and to come, is capable of tongues, arts, and sciences, and things
abstract from bodily sense ; it can discourse about God, angels, and all
kind of spiritual beings, about eternity and immortality, and propound
and debate questions and doubts concerning the world to come. The
beasts look only to their food and the propagation of their kind ; they
know nothing, and can conceive nothing, of man's affairs; but now man's
soul is not only capable of being ennobled and improved by moral
virtues, and such things as fit us for human society, but is capable also
of conformity to God, by being made holy and upright, and of com
munion with him in holy duties and acts of grace : 1 John i. 3, ' And
truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.'
The beasts desire not the company of men, as we do of God and of the
blessed spirits. In short, there is a greater affinity between the souls
of men and angels than between the souls of beasts and men : Ps. viii.
5, ' Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.' Well, then,
can it be imagined the souls of men, furnished with such capacities of
understanding, are nothing but a little puff of air, that is dissipated in
dying, or a little vital heat, that is extinguished with the corporeal
matter, or only the vigour of the blood ? That soul that can so much
soar aloft above the interests and concernments of the body, and take
such a marvellous delight and contentment in spiritual things as the
view of all manner of truths, must that follow the state of the body ?
Shall that creature that cometh so near the angels die like the beasts ?
or rather, become like the angels of God that always behold his face ?
Yea, that creature that draweth so near to God in the majesty of his
person and the abilities of his mind, that was created after God's own
image, and for the worship and service and enjoyment of God, shall he
die as the beasts that perish ? It cannot be imagined.
2. The scripture mentions words that imply its independence of the
body, or that it doth not so wholly depend on the body that it cannot
subsist and act without it ; they go several ways, as in the text :
3 John 2, ' I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be
in health, as thy soul prospereth ; ' 2 Cor. iv. 16, ' For which cause we
faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day. by day.' And experience teacheth the truth of these
things, that the body and soul seem sometimes to have no communion
with one another, so different are their functions and offices. You
shall often see men decrepit in all the members of the body, who yet
have the motions of their minds as strong and as nimble as when in
perfect health ; and when they are upon the borders of death, without
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 69
vigour and pulse, their understandings are more sublime than before,
and their thoughts more refined. It is true the indispositions of the
body clog the soul in things that are to be acted by the body ; but in
what the soul acteth apart, in the midst of aches and pains their
strength of mind is entire, and their comforts never more raised than
in bodily weakness. Therefore it lives and acts apart from the body.
3. The scripture directs us to this argument, that this is the general
persuasion of all mankind, that there is a life after death ; and it
instanceth in that that is most sensible, and of every day's experience,
our desires and fears.
[1.] Desires. The soul hath a natural desire of immortality, which,
if it should not enjoy, that desire were in vain ; but God doth nothing
in vain. The apostle intimateth this, how men feel about for some
thing eternal and infinite : Acts xvii. 27, ' That they should seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after him.' Every man would be happy,
and eternally happy ; for otherwise he would be tormented with a fear
of losing that which he counteth his happiness. See Ps. iv. 6, ' Who
will show us any good ? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy counte
nance upon us;' Mat. xiii. 45, 46, 'The kingdom of heaven is like unto
a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one
pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it; '
John vi. 34, 'Lord, evermore give us this bread;' Num. xxiii. 10,
' Let me die the death of the righteous.' Other creatures besides man
are satisfied with what they have here ; but the soul of man is satisfied
with nothing but the eternal enjoyment of what is good, an immortal
estate, an infinite good. Every one that loveth himself would be
happy, and, if he could, everlastingly happy. The saints, and those
that are taught of God, pitch upon the right way: Ps. xvii. 15, 'As
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with thy likeness.' But this is the universal inclination
of all mankind. Whence cometh this desire to be so universal, if there
be nothing to satisfy it? Every natural appetite was given us for
some purpose, and have things designed for their satisfaction; and
therefore there is that immortality we all seek after, not in our bodies,
they must return to their earth ; not in fancy, that is a shadow ; this
is like the pleasure which those take that want children in playing
with little dogs : it lieth in the soul, in the eternal enjoyment of God.
[2.] Fears, which presage and foretell such an estate to our great
disquiet. Conscience fears a judgment after this life : Rom. i. 32,
'Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such
things are worthy of death.' And a state of misery to come : Heb.
ii. 15, ' Who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage.' At death these fears are more active and pungent : 1 Cor.
xv. 56, 'The sting of death is sin;' and surprise the guilty soul with
greater horror and distraction ; then they are summoned to their great
account. If the soul were mortal, why should men be afraid of tor
ments after death ? They anticipate the miseries of the life to come,
not as it puts a period unto their natural comforts, but as it is an
entrance into everlasting miseries.
4. The scripture directs to this argument, the justice of God for
the comfort of the faithful : 2 Thes. i. 5, ' Which is a manifest token
70 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
of the righteous judgment of God.' The sufferings of the faithful are
a demonstration of a future estate. There is a God : if there be not a
first and fountain-being, how did we come to be? for nothing can
make itself ; or how did the world fall into this order ? This God is
just, for all perfections are in the first being. If we deny him to be
just, we deny him to be God and the governor of the world : Bom.
iii. 5, 6, ' Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance ? God forbid ; for
then how shall God judge the world?' Now it is agreeable to the
justice of his government that it should be well with them that do
well, and ill with them that do evil, or that he should make a differ
ence by rewards and punishments between the wicked and obedient.
It seemeth uncomely when it is otherwise: Prov. xxvi. 1, 'As snow
in summer, and as rain in harvest ; so honour is not seemly for a fool/
When the wicked are exalted, men look on it as an uncouth thing.
Now this reward and punishment is not fully dispensed in this world,
even in the judgment of them that have no great knowledge of the
heinous nature of sin, and the judgment competent thereunto. Yea,
rather, the best are exercised with poverty, disgrace, scorn, and all
manner of troubles, their persons molested, their names cast out as
odious, when the wicked live in pomp and ease, and oppress them at
their pleasure. Therefore, since God's justice doth not make such a
difference here, there is another life wherein he will do it ; otherwise we
must deny all providence, and that God doth not concern himself in
human affairs, and that a man may break his laws, oppress his people,
and no great harm will come of it : Zeph. i. 12, * The Lord will not do
good, neither will he do evil ; ' and God would seem indifferent to good
and evil ; yea, rather partial to the evil, and to favour the wicked more
than the righteous, which is blasphemy, and a diminution of God's
goodness and holiness : Ps. xi. 6, 7, ' Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; this shall be the
portion of their cup. But the righteous Lord loveth righteousness,
and his countenance doth behold the upright." Obedience would be
man's loss and ruin, and so God would be the worst master : 1 Cor.
xv. 19, 'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men
most miserable.' They that forsake the sinful pleasures of this life,
hazard all their natural interests, row against the stream of flesh and
blood, would be ill provided for by their religion. Therefore there
is another life wherein God will reward his people.
Secondly, I shall urge other arguments for the immortality of the
soul.
1. The capacity of the soul argueth the immortality of it. Now it
is capable (1.) Of civil arts ; (2.) Of owning the distinction between
good and evil ; (3.) Of knowing immortality and matters of everlasting
consequence ; (4.) Of knowing God and his attributes ; (5.) Of the
divine nature, which consists in the knowledge and love of God ;
(6.) Of a sweet familiar communion with him. Let us see how all
these capacities will prove the matter in hand.
[1.] The being capable of civil arts will prove the soul's spiritual
substance, far excelling the beasts in dignity ; for it is capable of all
kind of learning and witty inventions ; as grammar, and the knowledge
of tongues and rhetoric, to form and polish our speech ; logic, to refine
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 71
our reason ; ethics, to order our manners ; medicine, to cure the dis
tempers of our bodies ; by physics, or by natural philosophy, it knoweth
all kind of things, all ranks of beings, from God and angels to the
smallest worm ; yea, it acquireth such skill as to make use of all
creatures for its own benefit : James iii. 7, ' For every kind of beasts,
and of birds, and of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath
been tamed of mankind.' The power and skill of man is large, and
reacheth through the whole creation ; by one means or other man
mastereth them. Now what doth this signify but that man hath a soul
different from the souls of the beasts ? Job xxxv. 11, ' He teacheth
us more than the beasts of the field, and maketh us wiser than the
fowls of heaven.' And that will contribute much to the matter in
hand. Solomon puts the question, Eccles. iii. 21, ' Who knoweth the
spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth
downward to the earth ? ' Mark, there he asserts that the spirit of the
man goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast goeth downward ; there
is an ascent ascribed to the one, and a descent to the other ; upward
implieth heaven and heavenly things ; downward, the earth and earthly
things. The human soul ascendeth to God, the universal judge of all
the world, whose throne is in heaven; but the soul of the beasts
taketh its lot among all earlhly things, which are at length resolved
into earth, water, and air. In the creation, God is said to breathe into
man the spirit of life ; not so of the beast. So in the dissolution ; the
one returneth to God, the other leaveth off to exist, and when they
die, they are no more.
[2.] It is capable of owning the distinction between moral good and
evil. He that doth not acknowledge it is unworthy the name of man ;
for to love or hate God is not indifferent ; nor to kill a neighbour, or
hunt an hare in the woods ; to use lawful matrimony, or for a man to
pollute himself either with promiscuous or incestuous embraces. Now,
if our souls differed not from the soul of a beast, they could have no
such apprehension or conception. The beasts know pain and pleasure,
but they have no knowledge of virtue and vice, as is sensible to every
one that considereth them ; but man hath: Rom. ii. 14, 15, 'For when
the gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained
in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts.' Well, then, man
hath a life beyond this, a further end of his actions than a beast, which
is to approve himself to God, to whom he must give an account,
whether he hath done good or evil ; for a conscience supposeth a law,
and a law supposeth a sanction both of reward and punishment, and a
sanction a judge, to whom a man is accountable. And if man were
but an higher and wiser sort of beast, he would but differ gradually
from a dog or a swine. Now no man would be used as a beast, and made
a slave to any one that can master and tame him, and sold in the
market as a beast ; if this be his lot by his infelicity in the world, he
would look upon it as an uncouth thing, and that it would be to sin
before God to use him so. Therefore there is a distinction between men
and beasts ; men die not as the beasts die.
[3.] They are capable of the knowledge of immortality, and can frame
curious disputes and accurate debates thereof, which showeth they are
72 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
not altogether incapable of the thing itself ; for the beasts know no
other life beyond what they enjoy, and mind no other, and care for no
other ; and therefore the estate of man will be different from theirs.
[4.] Man is capable of knowing God and his attributes, which the
beasts are not, because they were never made to enjoy him : ' He hath
given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true/
1 John v. 20. They are capable of knowing their relation to God as
his creatures and subjects, and so are obnoxious to his judgment, and
that nothing here can make them happy, and that God alone can do it :
Ps. iv. 6, 7, ' There be many that say, Who will show us any good ?
Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put
gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their
wine increased.' That happiness lieth not in what men ordinarily seek
it in, riches, honours, and pleasures, but in the favour of God ; that here
we do not enjoy him to the full, and that therefore we must seek after
another life ; here we seek God, in the world to come we find him, and
therefore cannot rest in this partial enjoyment. Man is ever seeking
after an immortal blessedness. Now this capacity is not in vain ; the
soul is restless till it find him.
[5.] Man is capable of a divine nature, which consists not only in the
bare knowledge, but love of God : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given to
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be
partakers of the divine nature.' He is capable of the image of God :
Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness.'
[6.] Man is capable of a sweet familiar communion with God and
friendship with him: 1 John i. 3, 'And truly our fellowship is with
the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' Therefore the state of man
dying must needs be different from that of a beast, who hath no
knowledge, no desire, no love to God, no capacity of communion with
him, unless it be in respect of receiving the effects and bounty of his
common providence.
2. The dignity of man : ' God made him a little lower than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honour,' Ps. viii. 5. Now if he were
not immortal, he would be of all creatures most miserable ; his reason
only would serve to make him capable and apprehensive of the greater
calamity and trouble. Sure it is that man is the masterpiece of this
visible world, in respect of the majesty of his person, the abilities of his
mind, and his sovereignty over all the works of God's hands, all which
are marks of special favour of the creator to man above other creatures.
Now, if God hath given to man the next place in order of dignity to the
angels above his other creatures, what would his love signify if he be
in a worse condition than the beasts, and liable to so many cares,
encumbrances, grief, and remorse of conscience, which the beasts are
freed from ? Alas ! considering the calamities of his life, infirmities
of his body, perplexities of his mind, his reason is a sad privilege
to him, and his torment rather than his blessedness, whilst it only
giveth him a doleful remembrance of what is past, a care about what
is present, and awakens fears of what is to come. The beasts indeed
have a sense of what is present, but no remorse for what is past, no
presage of what is to come ; but man hath all these, a bitter remem-
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 73
brance of sins past ; and for present evils, they are more than those of
the beasts, such as poverty, banishment, imprisonment, slavery, loss of
estate, sundry sicknesses and diseases, and man hath a more bitter sense
and apprehension of them. And for time to come, he hath a foresight
of the end, which the beasts have not : so that we have twenty-fold
more cares and labours than they have, who live in tranquillity and
liberty, and free from those disquiets which vex mankind, and have no
remorse to sour their pleasures, either from the afflictive remembrance
of what is past, or solicitude about what is to come. Therefore if our
happiness were here only, man would be less happy than the beasts,
many of whose lives are longer and sweeter, who have a more sincere
use of bodily pleasures. But here is their happiness ; God had pro
vided some better thing for them to be enjoyed in the other world. It
cannot be imagined that he hath made his noblest creature in the world
with a nature that should be a necessary misery and vexation to itself,
above the calamities incident to the rest of the creatures. The very
apprehensions and desires that a man hath of an higher good would
be a torment and burden to him if there were no calamity else, for he
seeth a better estate which he cannot enjoy ; as an horse tied up from
the provender which is near unto him and cannot reach it. Our nature
inclineth us to know and love that we cannot obtain : we can think
aforehand of our death, and abode in darkness, which beasts cannot,
for they are not troubled with these thoughts : yea, we fear miseries
after death, and know not how to be exempted from them. Now it is
incredible that God should make his noblest creature most miserable,
by setting before his eyes a certain death, and possible torments and
miseries after death, and provide no remedy against these things.
3, God governeth men by the hopes and fears of another life, and
therefore such a life there is, and so the souls of men are immortal.
The reason is, because God needeth not to govern the world by deceit
and lying : this would be against his holiness and benignity, and
would destroy the very government he would establish ; for it would
tempt us to insincerity, and to cheating and deceiving others ; for men
are no better than their religion, it were well if they were as good.
The foolish, bad, and ignorant may use such arts ; but the wise, holy,
and good would not. In ludicrous things we fright our children with
bugbears and names ; but in such a serious thing as the government
of the world, it cannot be imagined that God should use such an
artifice.
[1.] That God governeth the world by the hopes and fears of another
life is evident, not only by the tenor of the Christian religion, where the
covenant between God and men is established by such threatenings and
promises, but by the consent of all nations where government is secured
and upheld by such a persuasion. Now if the soul be not immortal,
and there be not firm reasons to induce us to believe that it is so, why
hath such a conceit been rooted in the minds of men of all nations and
all religions, not only Greeks and Komans, but barbarians, and people
least civilised? They all received this opinion from hand to hand,
from their ancestors ; and the nearer men trace it to the original of
mankind, the more clear and pressing hath been the conceit thereof.
Lapse of time, which ordinarily decayeth all things, hath not been able
74 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
to deface it out of the minds of men ; the sense of an immortal con
dition after this life hath ever been accounted the great bridle upon the
world ; and being spread throughout the universe, hath with all for
wardness been received among all nations, and hath borne up against
all encounters of sin, and hath maintained itself in the midst of those
revolutions of human affairs wherein other truths are lost.
[2.] There is a necessity of this government, as suiting best with
the nature of man, which is much moved by the hopes and fears of
good and evil after death. That man is governed by hopes and fears,
common sense teacheth us ; that the hopes and fears of the present
life are not sufficient to bridle carnal nature, and withstand tempta
tions, and keep us in the true obedience and love to God to the end,
experience also showeth, because for the satisfaction of our lusts we can
dispense with temporal evils, as the lecher in the Proverbs, chap. v. 11,
' And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.'
Besides, if it were so that these motives of temporal good and evil were
sufficient, man were more to be feared than God, which killeth and
stabbeth all religion at the heart ; for man useth this engine of tem
poral punishments and inconvenience ; they do execution on those that
break their laws. Now Christ teacheth us : Luke xii. 4, 5, ' I say unto
you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom
you shall fear : Fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power to
cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.'
[3.] The necessity to it appeareth to meet with secret sins, such as
fornication, privy atheism, malice, adultery, murder, perjury, hypocrisy,
treachery, theft, deceit. He that believeth not a life after this may
secretly carry on these sins without impunity. Man cannot see the
heart, or make laws to govern it, therefore no man can know or punish
these secret sins ; therefore, if men can but hide their sins, they are
safe. So for the sins of men powerful in the world ; for who can call
them to an account here for their filthiness or cruelty ? Job xxxiv. 18,
' Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked ? and to princes, Ye are
ungodly ? ' There is no restraint to those who have none above them ;
and all secret wickedness would be committed without fear. So that
to deny the immortality of the soul, or a life after this, would take
away all honesty, and open the flood-gates to all villany and evil
practices. Who would make conscience of entire obedience to God,
enter in by the strait gate, walk in the narrow way, row against the
stream of flesh and blood, work out their salvation with fear and
trembling, and consecrate their time to God, if there were no other
life after this nor happiness to be there expected ? Alas ! we plainly
see the contrary. Who are so lewd and hardened in their sensualities
as they that are tainted with this conceit ? That not only the denial,
but the forgetfulness of this estate worketh this effect. They make
the best of the present life : 1 Cor. xv. 32, ' Let us eat and drink,
for to-morrow we shall die.' Such atheistical thoughts are very
common : ver. 33, ' Be not deceived ; evil communications corrupt good
manners.' But a deep sense of this immortal estate is the fountain of
all sobriety, righteousness, and godliness ; and all that is virtuous and
praiseworthy hath been done in the world upon this account. There-
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 75
fore, who are the better men, those that believe the immortality of the
soul, or those that believe it not ? And who are likely to be in the
right, wicked wretches, or holy, serious, and considering men ?
[4.] The duties which God requireth of us show it. Man is obliged
to divers duties which are difficult and displeasing to the flesh, and
which we should never perform without a serious belief of the soul's
immortality ; such as these, to forsake the sinful pleasures of the world,
to mortify and tame the flesh, diligently to exercise ourselves to godli
ness, to suffer the loss of all outward comforts, yea, of life itself. All
these are commanded ; the mortification and keeping down the body,
Col. iii. 5 ; diligence in the heavenly life, Phil. iii. 13, 14 ; fortitude
and patience under the greatest trials, as Moses is propounded for an
example, Heb. xi. 24-26 ; not to faint in the greatest tribulations, 2
Cor. iv. 16-18 ; yea, to expose life itself, Luke xiv. 26. Now would
God, who is so loving to mankind, bind us to displease the flesh, and
enjoin us so many duties which are harsh and troublesome, yea, some
of them hurtful and detrimental to the body, if he had not provided
some better thing for us ? Would he, all whose precepts are for our
good, and who hath made self-love so great an help to our duty, be so
hard to us, but that he knoweth how to recompense this diligence and
self-denial ? He saith, ' Take no thought for your life, what ye shall
eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put
on,' Mat. vi. 25 ; but he saith, ' Keep the soul with all diligence/ Deut.
iv. 9. Would he be so earnest in pressing us to look after the soul,
and strengthening and adorning the inward man, if the soul were to
perish with the body ? Surely, if all depended upon the body, the
body should be more cared for ; but it is quite otherwise. Scripture
and reason show the body is only to be cared for in subordination to
the soul, and that our chiefest work should be to furnish our souls with
knowledge and grace. And they are the worthiest men who do most
busy themselves about divine and heavenly things ; whereas they are
the basest who care so much for the body, and make a business of
those things which they should do only by the by. Certainly if there
were an end of us when the body faileth, we should abhor nothing so
much as death, desire nothing so much as the good of the body ;
nothing would be so dear to us, but we would part with it to keep off
the death of the body, for then there would be an end of us. Death
would be the chiefest evil we could suffer, and that which would
deprive us of all other good ; nothing should be feared and abhorred
like death, and we should lie, forswear, or do anything to avoid it.
But this principle would not only destroy all generous actions, but
introduce all dishonesty and sin into the world ; for as we should never
venture our lives upon any reason and inducement, though never so
just, so we should stick at no evil to preserve life, and the conveniencies
which belong thereunto.
[5.] The desires wrought in us by the Spirit of God, to see and
enjoy God, argue the immortality of the soul : Eom. viii. 23, ' And
not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop
tion, to wit, the redemption of our bodies ; ' 2 Cor. v. 2, ' For in this
we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which
76 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
is from heaven.' We prove another life, not only by the inclination,
instinct, and disposition of nature towards happiness in general ; the
universal desire of all mankind is to be everlastingly happy, this
proveth it ; for this desire being universal and natural, is not frustrate ;
nature doth nothing in vain : but the desires and groans of the sancti
fied do much more prove it, for they do more forcibly direct and carry
our hearts to a certain scope and end ; and they are excited by the
Holy Spirit, for he imprinteth a firm persuasion of this happiness, and
stirreth up these desires after it ; and that in our sober and severest
moods, when we are solemnly conversing with God in his holy worship,
in the word, prayer, meditation, and the Lord's supper, and all other
holy duties, then he most raiseth these affections towards heavenly
things ; and also he leaveth this heavenly relish upon our hearts at
other times, as the reward of our eminent obedience to God ; and the
more serious and holy any are, the more do they feel of this. Now
these desires being of God's own infusing, they will not be disappointed ;
therefore those who make the hopes of the world to come their happi
ness, desire, and joy, will one day be partakers of the blessedness of it ;
their groaning, seeking, and longing, will not be in vain, for God will
give the satisfaction where he giveth the desire.
Use 1. Is terror to the wicked and ungodly. Your souls die not
with the body, but must enter into endless torments. The body per-
isheth, but the immortal substance will for ever subsist in a state of
woe or weal. Now how brutishly and much beneath a man do they
live who wholly give up themselves to carnal pleasures and worldly
pursuits, that live as if their souls did die with their bodies, and they
should never hear of them more ! They make no provision for their
everlasting estate. Three evils I charge upon these men
1. These men do not believe that which scripture and reason showeth
to be certainly true, and so do not show themselves either Christians
or men. The great design of scripture is to give them a prospect of
another world, and to assure them of a life after death. And will you
not receive God's testimony ? Are God's threatenings a vain scarecrow ;
are the promises a golden dream ? Go and reason, if the soul abideth
not after it flitteth out of the body, it is either because it cannot be or
act, or because God will not suffer it to be or act, or hath not clearly
declared it shall be so, so that no certainty can be had thereof or hath
declared or expressed himself to the contraiy. Now none of these
things are true.
[1.] Not the first. The nature of the soul is such that it showeth
plainly that it can live without the body. A spirit can subsist by itself ;
that which God hath fitted to endure for ever, he hath designed it to
endure for ever. Now the soul as a spirit is fltted to live for ever, and
it can live without the body, for it is auro/ai^To?, it doth of itself
move itself. Is it the body that supports the soul, or the soul that
supports the body ? Heathens have thought so upon this argument,
and will not you ? Cum venerit ille dies, qui mixtum hoc divini
humanique, secemat, corpus hie ubi inveni relinquam, ipse me diis
redeam When that day shall come, when the divine spirit shall be
severed from the human body, I shall leave the body where I found it,
and yield up my spirit to the gods.
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7. 77
[2.] Is it because God will not permit it to be, or act without the
body ? Whence doth that appear ? To us Christians he hath appointed
a mediator to receive our souls.
[3.] Or is it because he hath doubtfully expressed his mind ? You
are not sure there is no such life ; it is impossible you should know or
prove the contrary. The question between the infidel and the Christian
is not whether there be a world to come ? but whether he can prove
there is none ? You cannot prove the falsity of the Christian hope by any
sound argument that there is no heaven nor hell ; for aught you can
say or know there are both, and it were best to take the surer side.
In a lottery, men will venture some small matter. Some of the
heathens that disputed against it or doubted of it, yet acknowledged it
to be a supposition conducing to virtue and goodness.
[4.] God hath not declared his mind to the contrary, but plainly
told us that it is so. It is easy to presume that a thousand to one
but it is so. Natural reason, consent of nations, fears of a guilty con
science, or presages of eternal punishment, the whole drift of the
Christian religion, the example of Christ, all prove it. Those wretches
that outface religion accuse Christ of a lie, and the wisest men of the
world of folly, their own consciences of imposing a cheat upon them to
check their vain pleasures, and, in defiance of light within and without,
smother all conceits of a world to come.
2. They do not consider these things, and weigh them, that they
may come to understand what is their end and business here. Alas !
are we so near everlasting joy or misery, and yet neglect it ; yea, it
may be, scorn and oppose those that make it their chiefest care and
labour to prepare for it ? How long have you lived in the world, and
scarce ever asked the question or thought seriously, What shall I do
to be saved ? You are desirous to give full and ample satisfaction to
your dying part, yea, have pampered it, and over-clogged it ; but your
business is not to pamper the body, but to save your souls. Now you
should show yourselves men : Isa. xlvi. 8, ' Kemember this, and show
yourselves men ; bring it again to mind, ye transgressors ! ' Think
aforehand, What would poor deluded souls, that are in their everlast
ing estate, give if they might be trusted with a little time again, if
God would but try them once more, that they might mend their past
folly ? They have lost their souls for poor temporal trifles. But alas !
now, though we are daily drawing near to our long home, yet we little
think of it ; we are almost come to our journey's end, and we never con
sider whither we are going.
3. They do not improve these things, nor live answerably, which is
a further degree of brutishness : Ps. xlix. 12, ' Man being in honour,
abideth not ; he is like the beasts that perish ; ' Jude 10, ' What they
know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt them
selves.' They are strangers to the heavenly mind, and wholly governed
by carnal sense ; they live as if the soul did serve for no other use but
to keep the body from stinking. Their principles have no influence
upon their practice ; they talk of the immortality of the soul, yet spend
all their care upon the body.
Use 2. Is caution.
1. Do not hazard your souls for things that perish. Let nothing
78 SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
entice us to forfeit or hinder our endless happiness : Heb. x. 39, ' We
are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul ; ' Mat. xvi. 26, ' What is a man profited if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul ? '
2. Do not betray the souls of others for a little pelf, as ignorant and
careless ministers do, so they have the maintenance. Love to souls is
the great thing we learn of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
' a ransom for them,' Mat. xx. 28. Ministers should have the bowels
of Christ : Phil. i. 8, ' For God is my record how greatly I long after
you all in the bowels of Christ ; pity those that are going to hell, and
ready to perish everlastingly.
Use 3. Is exhortation, to persuade you to make it your mark and
scope to look after this immortal state of blessedness. Let us leave
things that perish to men that perish : John vi. 27, ' Labour not for
the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth to ever
lasting life.' Surely this argument should persuade us to heavenly-
mindedness. Earthly things are of short duration,- and shall quickly
leave us, and when they are gone, they are to us as if they had never
been, a shadow, a dream, or something that is next to nothing ; but
the fruit of godliness abideth for ever : 1 John ii. 17, ' The world
passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of
God abideth for ever.'
Motives.
1. You know more of the dignity of man, who is created after the
most perfect pattern, the image of God himself : Gen. i. 26, ' So God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.'
Kedeemed at the dearest rate, the blood of the Son of God : 1 Peter
i. 1.8, 19, ' Forasmuch as ye are redeemed, not with corruptible things,
as silver and gold, &c., but with the precious blood of Christ,' and
designed and ordained to the highest end, the glorifying and enjoying
of God : Horn. xi. 36, ' For of him, and through him, and to him are
all things.' Surely they should be more sensible of their immortality,
and serve God more than the rest of his creatures.
2. You profess that religion which hath brought life and immor
tality to light, and the end of which is the saving of the soul. Now,
though you have the profession of Christians, you have not the spirit
of Christians if this be not your daily business and scope. What have
you done for the saving of your. souls? if all your business, cares, and
fears are about the body and the interests of the bodily life, you have
the spirit of the world, not of God, Are not your souls worth the look
ing after ? that which is the scope of your religion should be the
business of your lives and actions, that a Christian may correspond and
answer to his Christianity, as the impress doth to the seal.
3. You are God's witnesses : Isa. xliii. 10, ' Ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord.' What proof do we give of a reasonable immortal
soul ? Heb. xi. 7, ' By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not
seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his
house ; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the
righteousness which is by faith.' Do we propagate carelessness and
atheism, or a mindfulness of the world to come ?
SERMON UPON ECCLESIASTES XII. 7.
79
4. If we are satisfied with present things, we have no more to look
for : Ps. xvii. 14, ' From men of the world, which have their portion
in this life ; ' Mat. vi. 2, ' They have their reward;' Luke vi. 24, ' Woe
unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation ; ' Luke
xvi. 25, ' Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good
things.' It is sad to be put off with these things, with riches, honour?,
favour of men, and a little temporal greatness.
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6,
SERMON I.
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.
Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own Hood, and hath made us Icings and priests unto God and
his Father ; to him &e glory and dominion for ever and ever.
Amen. REV. i. 5, 6.
THE sacrament is an abridgment of the gospel, and we shall best suit
the end of it when we lay before you the sum of the gospel in one
entire view. This scripture presenteth us with the principal parts of
it. It carrieth the form of a doxology or a thanksgiving; wherein
observe
1. The person to whom this doxology is directed, ' To him ; ' that
is, to Jesus Christ, ' the faithful witness, the first begotten from the
dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.'
2. The reasons or matter of it. Wherein (1.) The moving cause
of all that Christ hath done for us, ' He loved us.' (2.) The benefit,
obtained for us, ' He hath washed us from our sins in his own blood.'
(3.) The fruit of it, ' And made us kings and priests unto God and his
Father.'
3. The doxology itself, ' To him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen.'
Doct. That the Lord Jesus deserveth everlastingly to be honoured,
lauded, and praised by all the saints that make mention of his name.
John having occasionally mentioned Christ, falleth into this
doxology.
Reasons. (1.) From what he is ; (2.) For what he hath done for us ;
(3.) For the fruits and benefits we have thereby.
I. From what he is. He is described (1.) To be ' the faithful wit
ness,' who hath made known the will of the Father with all fidelity and
certainty. (2.) As one who, being crucified, rose from the dead as our
first-fruits, ascertaining our resurrection : ' The first begotten from the
dead.' The apostle saith, Col. i. 18, ' The first-born from the dead.'
The resurrection is a kind of birth, and Christ is the first-born or first-
begotten, because he was the first that rose from the dead in his own
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 81
strength, and vanquished death. Others were raised before him, but
to die again ; they were raised in their own single persons, he as a
public person : ' But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first-fruits of them that slept/ 1 Cor. xv. 20. And he will by the
same power raise again all his members to immortality and life. (3.)
He is ' the Prince of the kings of the earth ; ' one that hath all power
given him in heaven and in earth, and is superior to all princes of the
world, not only in regard of eminency, as a far greater prince than they,
but authority and power over them ; he is their Lord and sovereign as
well as ours : as it is said, Dan. iv. 17, ' The Most High ruleth in the
kingdoms of men, and giveth them to whomsoever he will.'
1. Observe, these titles are given to Christ with respect to his three
offices of king, priest, and prophet. (1.) His prophetical office is
implied in that term, ' The faithful Witness ; ' one that hath brought '
the gospel out of the bosom of God, and plainly and clearly revealed
it to the world, and hath confirmed the certainty of it by divers
miracles, especially by his death, from which he rose again, and
ascended, and poured out the Spirit upon the disciples for a testimony ;
and still continueth that dispensation in part of giving the Spirit, so
far as to assure the hearts of his people that this is the truth. (2.)
His priesthood is implied in that expression, ' The first-begotten from
the dead.' He died, and so offered himself as a sacrifice of atonement
to God ; he rose again, and is entered within the veil, to continue the
exercise of that office by his constant intercession. (3.) His kingly
office is implied in that other expression, ' The Prince of the kings of
the earth.' They are all his vicegerents, absolutely at his dispose, and
can do neither more nor less than he will have them : Mat. xxviii. 13,
4 All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.' He hath supreme
and absolute authority given him over all things, both in heaven and
earth, for the good of the church ; and in the church he is the only
head and king, to appoint and maintain the way and means of gather
ing, preserving, ruling the church, and ordering all the affairs thereof
to the world's end.
2. Observe, that all these titles are suited to the present occasion of
this prophecy, which is to encourage his people to suffer persecution
for the gospel's sake. (1.) As he was ' The faithful Witness,' it assured
their cause to be right. The gospel is called ' The testimony of Jesus
Christ,' ver. 2. He declared nothing to us but the will of God. The
flesh hath such a value for and tenderness of its interests, that men
will soon distinguish themselves out of their duty if there be the least
doubtfulness in the cause for which they suffer, or any suspicion of it.
Therefore now, when dreadful troubles attended the profession of the
gospel, he setteth forth Christ as ' The faithful Witness/ to heighten
their zeal. As also, Eev. iii. 14, 'These things saith the Amen, the
faithful and true Witness.' (2.) As he was ' The first-begotten from
the dead/ it still encourageth them more, by assuring them of a joyful
resurrection if their lives should fall in this quarrel and conflict. This
should allay all the fears of death. Christ is not called the first-born
of the living, but the first-born from the dead, to own a relation to us
in every condition, dead as well as living: he, as the first-born, rose
as a pledge and pattern of what should be done to us. (3.) As 'Prince
VOL. xix. F
82 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
of the kings of the earth,' of whose power and persecutions they were
so much afraid, but needed not ; for they are not only accountable to
Christ at last, which those adverse powers little valued, having not
embraced the profession of the gospel ; but were held in by the reins of his
government for the present, so as they could not so much as touch an
hair of their heads without his leave. So that here was much
encouragement for suffering Christians, who at that time were to con
flict with great difficulties, and exposed to the slaughters and butcheries
of cruel enemies.
3. Observe, all these titles serve to beget a reverence and great respect
in our hearts to the person that owneth them ; he is ' The faithful
Witness.' The great Prophet of the church should be regarded by us :
'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him,"
Mat. xvii. 5. We are to hearken to him, believe him, obey him, as
knowing that we must stand or fall at the sentence of his word. He
is the greatest and most excellent of all the prophets, and far above
them all, who knew more of God and of his mind than all they joined
in one ; and hath declared his will more fully, clearly, and powerfully;
and shall we set at nought his counsel ? Some that despised the
counsel of an ordinary prophet smarted for it : Heb. x. 28, 29, ' He
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three wit
nesses : of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought
worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God ? ' who came out
of his bosom on purpose to teach us the way of salvation. If he require
repentance and faith, with a promise of righteousness and eternal life,
and a commination of eternal death unavoidable, if we believe not, nor
repent, we are to believe it with all certainty, to set about this work
with all care and diligence, and continue therein with all constancy
and perseverance : Heb. xii. 25, ' See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh ; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speak
eth from heaven.' Christ came from heaven at first, returned to heaven
again, from heaven sent down the Holy Ghost upon the apostles, and
by that Spirit enabled them to preach the gospel with success. Oh,
surely we should attend to his doctrine, and receive it with firm assent,
and obey it with humble submission.
Again, he is ' The first-begotten from the dead.' That he died
should render him dear to us, for it was for our sakes, as I shall show
by-and-by. That he rose again was for our sakes, for our justification :
1 Who was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justifica
tion,' Rom. iv. 25 ; for it showeth that his sacrifice was accepted as
sufficient for our atonement. Yea, for our blessed resurrection : 1 Cor.
xv. 20, ' But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-
fruits of them that slept ; ' as the whole harvest was blessed and
sanctified in a little handful of the first-fruits offered to God. But I
urge it now as an argument why we should give him glory, as deserv
ing it by the greatness of his person. This made it evident that he
was the' Son of God: Rom. i. 4, ' Declared to be the Son of God with
power, by the resurrection from the dead.' The true Messiah, and
judge of the world : Acts xvii. 31, ' Because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in- righteousness, by that man
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 83
whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men,
in that he hath raised him from the dead.' If he had been an impostor,
neither could he have raised up himself, being a mere man, nor would
God have raised him up ; for we cannot imagine that divine providence
would co-operate to countenance a lie or cheat. As then you would
not be found enemies to Christ in his imperial day, give him glory and
dominion. If you slight him, you despise one that is evidently declared
to be the Son of God. And there is no medium ; either he must be
your loving Saviour or your terrible judge. If you neglect him, he
will not be the first-born from the dead to you, rior the first-fruits to
you the first-fruits did not bless the tares, or the cockle, or darnel, or
filthy weeds, but only the good corn though raised again you shall be
by his judicial power.
Again, he is ' The Prince of the kings of the earth,' and therefore
highly to be respected. Respect to great ones and fawning upon great
ones is the practice o all the world ; all will seek the ruler's face. As
all rivers run to the sea, so do all the respects of the world to the great
and the mighty ; and is not the Son of God worthy of our respects,
that is set down at the right hand of majesty above all ? If we did
live by faith as much as by sense, we would see it is our interest as
well as our duty to honour Christ ; we would not fear a mortal man,
that can threaten us with a prison, but Christ, who can threaten us with.
hell ; nor be dismayed at the frowns of men when Christ smiles : ' Who
would not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy name ? ' Rev. xv. 4. We
would yield up ourselves to be his willing subjects, and obey his laws,
who can reward us, not with temporal dignities, but eternal life. The
authority and power that all others have is but derived from Christ,
and subordinate to him ; therefore, if he smiles, whose frowns need we
fear? He is the one lawgiver, that hath potestatem vitce et necis,
power of life and death ; he is able to destroy absolutely, and you may
be safe in his protection. Well, then, if we consider what he is, he
deserveth everlastingly to be honoured.
II. What he hath done for us, ' He loved us, and washed us from,
our sins in his own blood.' And there we begin
First, With the fountain and bosom cause of all, and that is Christ's
love : ' To him that loved us.'
1. Christ's love is the ground of man's redemption ; that stirred all
the causes, and set them a-work, that concurred to this end. Other
attributes were manifested in the redemption of mankind, as God's
wisdom, power, justice, holiness ; but they are all subservient to love :
but love is at the upper end of all causes, subservient to nothing but
itself. If you ask a reason of other things, it may be assigned ; but if
you ask a reason of his love, that cannot be given but from itself. If
the question be, Wherefore did God discover such riches of wisdom,
goodness, and power, for the saving poor worthless ' creatures ? He
loved us : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only-
begotten Son.' Wherefore did Jesus Christ submit to such bitter
agonies, such an accursed death ? He loved us : Eph. v. 2, ' Walk in
love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, au
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour ; ' Eph. v.
25, ' Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it ; ' and Gal. ii. 20,
84 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
' Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.'
But now put the question, Wherefore did he love us ? Love only is
the reason of itself ; he loved us because he loved us : Deut. vii. 7, 8,
' The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because ye were
more in number than any people, &c., but because the Lord loved you.'
2. As it is the fountain cause, so it was that property that shined forth
most conspicuously in the work of redemption : Horn. v. 8, ' God com-
mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.' And therefore this is that which we should most admire
and be ravished with in our thoughts. Here, next to the description of
the excellency of Christ's person, the first thing mentioned in the
doxology itself is this, ' To him that loved us.' This is a comfortable
word, as if Jesus would be described and known by nothing so much
as by his love. What was the Son of God but love incarnate, love born
of a virgin, love conversing in the world, and preaching salvation to
poor sinners ; love going about and doing good ; love relieving the
diseased and the possessed, curing the deaf, and the dumb, and the blind,
and the lame ; and finally, love dying and hanging on the cross ? ' God
is love/ 1 John iv. 8. The angels in heaven adore this love, though
spectators, not parties interested ; he came not for their sakes, but ours
only. We have a little notional knowledge of it, but could we once find
the saving effects of God's love in Christ, impressed upon our hearts by
the Spirit, how would you be melted and ravished, and ever be thinking
what glory and honour you might bring to him that thus loved you ?
You and I may discourse of it ; it is not a few cold thoughts of the love
of Christ will work on us, but ' the shedding of this love abroad in
your hearts by the Holy Ghost,' Eom. v. 5. There is no knowledge
like the experimental knowledge which ariseth from the felt and known
effects of this love ; this would awaken your hopes, fill you with solid
comfort, excite you to your duty : 2 Cor. v. 14, ' For the love of Christ
constraineth us.' However, till you have this, the means you must use
are sound belief and serious consideration.
[1.] Embracing by faith the love of God in Christ, and the good
things prepared by it, as they are revealed and offered in the gospel ;
that is the way to get this fuller insight and experimental knowledge
and feeling of this love; for so the apostle prayeth, Eph. iii. 17-19,
' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what
is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge ; ' 1 John iv. 16, ' We have
known and believed the love which God hath to us. God is love ; and
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.'
[2.] The serious contemplation and meditation of it. It is your duty
to study it with the deepest, serious, and most ponderous thoughts you
can use : Eph. iii. 18, ' That we may comprehend the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height of it.' We are not to content ourselves
with a superficial view of God's love in Christ, but must take an accu
rate inspection of it, in all the dimensions thereof, upward, downward,
on the right hand and left. Narrow thoughts and shallow apprehen
sions do little good, either as to God's glory, or our solid comfort, and
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 85
that earnest constraint or encouragement to duty which it is wont to
produce in the heart. We must neither do it slightly nor seldom. Our
hearts are too narrow to understand it all at once ; it is so vast and
boundless, so rich and unsearchable, yea, infinite. We never know so
much but there remaineth more still to be known. Therefore we must
often renew the meditation, and continue it so long, till the heart be
warmed, and ready to break out into praise ; and till our wonder and
admiration be raised, and we see the object too big for the faculty, for
it is beyond all created understanding ; till we be swallowed and over
whelmed in this deep and bottomless ocean, and through a penury of
thoughts cry out, Oh, the depth of the riches of the mercy and love of
God ! For the present I shall content myself with four properties of
this love.
(1.) It was a free love : ' I will love them freely,' Hosea xiv. 4. If
he did not love us with a free love, how could he love us at all ? What
could he foresee in us but what was the effect of his own grace ? We
were neither loving nor lovely. Not loving ; we did not prevent God.
To love those that love us, it hath nothing singular ; that is the ordi
nary courtesy of the world. By nature we were God's enemies, and
what could an enemy deserve ? Not lovely ; all that grace that is
wrought in us afterward is his gift ; therefore this was at first a free
love, that had no motive nor foundation but within itself. He loveth
us, not because he seeth anything lovely or amiable in us, but only
because he will demonstrate the absoluteness of his own will, and self-
inclination to do us good.
(2.) It was a real love, not an empty complimenting love ; it rested
not in good wishes ; there was great proof and manifestation of it :
1 John iv. 9, 10, ' In this was manifested the love of God towards us,
because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'
It was such a love as made him leave the height of his glory, and
assume our nature, and die in that nature, and shed his blood, and by
it wash us from our sins. There was a benevolence in it, and a benefi
cence also. A man may wish health when another is sick, and supplies
when another is poor ; but Christ did not wish us well only ; but as
fire showeth itself by heat and by light, so love by the real effects of it.
Perhaps thou sayest to another, Believe that I love thee ; but while
this is only professed in words, he may believe it, but he cannot see it ;
but if upon occasion you do anything for him, or expose yourself to
danger for his sake, then he saith, Now I see that thou lovest me. So
rod to Abraham : Gen. xxii. 12, ' Now I know that thou fearest God,
Being thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.'
Tere is a plain proof and signal evidence. So here ; Christ hath
demonstrated the reality of his love ; the man seeth it.
(3.) It was eminent and transcendent love. Compare it with the
love of one creature to another, and in all the world you cannot find a
parallel to equal it : John xv. 13, ' Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friend.' But where is that rare
instance of friendship ? Rom. v. 6-8, ' For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a
86 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
righteous man will one die ; yet perad venture for a good man some
would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us, in
that, while we were yet enemies, Christ died for us.' He died, the just
for the unjust, the judge for the offender, God for sinners. It can be
resembled by no love upon earth ; therefore he himself com pare th his
love to lost sinners with the Father's love to him : John xv. 9, ' As the
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.' It is eternal, incompre
hensible, and unchangeable.
(4.) It was a full love, removing our misery, procuring all blessings
for us, to make us completely happy ; for as it fetched us from the
lowest hell, it leaveth us not till it bringeth us to joys and happiness
in the highest heavens : 1 Thes. v. 9, 10, ' For God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ ; who
died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together
with him/ Well, then, if I should stop here, I hope you have so
much ingenuity and sense of your Redeemer's affection to you as to say,
'To him be glory and dominion, even to him who loved us.'
Secondly, The signal act of his love to us : ' He washed us from our
sins in his own blood.'
1. Observe, this is put as the great instance of his love. We cannot
know the love of God by any other fruit and benefit till this be done.
By the bounty of his general providence he provideth for all his
creatures, and feedeth them, and maintaineth them in that kind of
being unto which he hath raised them out of nothing. So he supplieth
the young ravens and the beasts of the field ; much more is he good to
mankind ; he giveth them food and raiment convenient fur them, and
beareth with them notwithstanding their renewed provocations : Acts
xiv. 17, ' Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he
did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling
our hearts with food and gladness.' The heathen might trace God by
acts of bounty rather than acts of vengeance. But hereby they can
have no assurance of God's special love to them ; for 'No man knoweth
love or hatred by all that is before them,' Eccles. ix. 1. Thou canst
not say, God giveth me riches, therefore he loveth me ; or sendeth me
poverty, therefore he hateth me. No ; he may give these things to his
enemies, and deny them to his friends; but you may undoubtedly
conclude, He loveth me, for he hath washed me from my sins. Clear
this once, and you have a full and concluding proof of God's special
love to you.
2. The value and worth of this benefit is exceeding great. This
will appear if you consider
[1.] The necessity of it. We were all defiled with sin, which is such
a filthiness and stain as cannot easily be washed away. The party dis
pleased and provoked is God, and the party defiled is the immortal soul
of man, which being subject to the power of God, and bound by his
laws, upon disobedience is conscious to itself of the merit of death and
punishment, and debarred from all communion with God. And it can
not have any sound peace till it knows that God is satisfied, and that
it shall be admitted again into terms of grace and favour with him.
That sin hath made us filthy and loathsome to God, that we cannot
please him, nor be accepted with him, the word doth not only assert it :
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 87
Ps. xiv. 2, 3, ' The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is
none that doeth good, no not one ; ' Job xv. 14, ' What is man, that
he should be clean ? and he that is born of a woman, that he should
be righteous ? ' Job xiv. 4, ' Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean ? not one." But conscience is in part sensible of it, so that a
sinner hath a secret dread and shyness of God, especially upon the
commission of actual sins : 1 John iii. 20, 21, ' For if our heart con
demn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards
God,' I loiow generally man looketh to the foulness and cleanness of
the body, but is insensible of the stain of the soul. Yet we cannot
always exempt, no, not the worst, from a secret sense of this. How
ever, our misery and happiness dependeth upon God's judgment, not
our own ; if in the eye of God all of us are polluted and unclean, lying
in our blood, defiled with the guilt of sin already committed, and the
filthy vileness of sin yet indwelling. This is evident, we were miser
able enough till God found out a remedy ; and this misery is the deeper,
because man loveth what God loatheth ; as the swine loveth wallowing
in the mire, and therefore it is a creature loathsome to us. We count
sin a bravery, when it is the greatest impurity, a filthiness deeply
ingrained in our natures, and therefore not easily washed away, both as
to the guilt, as also to the stain and blot.
[2.] This being our misery, Christ came to wash us, and with no
other laver than his own blood, as a priest offering himself a sacrifice
for our sins. The remedy for so great a mischief must have a noble
and excellent cause. That blood was necessary appeareth by the types
of the law, for the typical expiation was made by the blood of bulls and
goats offered in sacrifice. And that no blood but the blood of Jesus
Christ would serve the turn is evident, if you consider the party dis
pleased and provoked, who was God ; the party defiled, the immortal
spirit of man ; and the heinous nature of the offence, which was a
breach of his righteous and eternal law. Therefore it is said, 1 John
i. 7, 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin;'
Heb. i. 3, ' He by himself purged our sins ; ' and Heb. ix. 13, 14, ' If
the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve
the living God ? ' There is virtue and efficacy enough in the blood of
Christ, partly from the institution of God, and its own manifold worth
and value, as being the blood of God ; partly by the way and manner
in which it was offered, by an act done in our nature, of the greatest
obedience and self-denial that ever was or can be, and so God is fully
repaired in point of honour.
[3.] This sacrifice thus offered was accepted of God in the behalf of
sinful man, as a full price and merit to procure for us both justification
and sanctification. We needed both, being polluted both with the
guilt and stain of sin. Both are a trouble to a sensible conscience or
an awakened sinner, who is in the next capacity to receive this sacrifice :
88 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness/ As a man
that hath broken his leg is not only troubled with the pain, but would
have it set right again. Both are implied in this washing, and both
are effectually accomplished by virtue of his bloody death and sacrifice :
1 Cor. vi. 11, 'And such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye
are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus, and
by the Spirit of our God.' And Christ hath obtained both by virtue
of his bloody death and sacrifice for our pardon and restitution to God's
grace and favour : Eom. v. 1, ' Therefore, being justified by faith, we
have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.' As also the
gift of the Spirit, to sanctify and renew us to the image of God : Titus
iii. 5, 6, ' Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through
Jesus Christ our Saviour.'
[4.] Besides the impetration of this benefit, we must consider the
application. The sacrifice had power to purge us and wash us from
our sins, as soon as it was offered and accepted of God. The procur
ing of the power is the impetratiou, which was antecedent to actual
pardon and sanctification ; therefore it is said, ' When he had by him
self purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high,' Heb. i. 3. Then he interposed the merit ; then was the first
grant made or liberty given. But then for the application : It is
applied when we submit to those terms that are agreed upon between
our Redeemer and God, as our supreme judge and lawgiver. As when
this sacrifice is believed and depended on, and pleaded in an humble and
broken-hearted manner, and improved to thankfulness, and resolutions
to return to the obedience of our creator, then is sin actually pardoned,
and our hearts cleansed. He did not pardon, nor cleanse, nor sanctify,
as soon as this blood was shed upon the cross, until it be effectually
applied to the filthy soul by a lively faith : Acts xv. 9, ' Purifying their
hearts by faith ; ' and a serious and broken-hearted repentance : 1 John
i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins.' We must bewail our sins, depend upon the sacrifice of Christ,
sue out the virtue of it by prayer : Ps. li. 2, ' Wash me thoroughly
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.' Extinguish the love
of sin by godly sorrow and all holy means, and mortify the flesh by the
help of the Spirit : Rom. viii. 13, 'If ye through the Spirit mortify the
deeds of the body,' &c. ; and more and more interest ourselves in his
cleansing.
[5.] Because the application is a difficult work. Besides the purchase
of the gift of the Spirit, Christ hath instituted the help of the word and
sacraments, to bring us into possession of this benefit : Eph. v. 26, ' That
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.'
The merit of his death falleth upon these means, that we may use them
with the more confidence : John xv. 3, ' Now are ye clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you.' The word is the glass wherein
to see corruption, which sets a-work to seek purging ; by that our sense
of our natural impurity is revived, the means and causes of our cleans
ing set down, that we may with deep humiliation confess our sin, humbly
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 89
sue out the grace offered, and wait for it in the conscionable use of all the
means of grace. And for the sacraments : As the word containeth
the charter and grant of Christ and all his benefits to those that will
receive him, so this is the seal of the grant : Horn. iv. 11, ' He received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith ; ' whereby
we are more confirmed in waiting for the Spirit, and excited to look for
this benefit from Christ. Well, then, we must still lie at the pool of
the word and sacraments.
And now you have my second argument why Jesus Christ should be
honoured, lauded, and praised by all the saints ; because he hath done
so great an office of love, and procured so great a benefit for us, as the
washing away of our sins in his blood, that we might be admitted to
communion with God.
III. The fruits and benefits that we have thereby : ' He hath made
us kings and priests unto God, and to his Father.' This doth oblige
us the more to ascribe, and give glory and dominion to him for ever
and ever, since he hath brought us into communion with God, and set
us apart as consecrated persons, such as kings and priests were of old,
to perform daily service to God.
In this third thing
1. Observe the order. We must be washed from our sins before we
can be kings and priests, or minister before the Lord. Aaron and his
sons, though they were formerly designed to be priests, yet they could
not officiate and act as pridsts before they were consecrated. So must
we be consecrated and made priests to God, and that by the blood of
Christ. They were seven days in consecrating. This whole life is the
time of our consecration, which goeth on by degrees, and will be made
complete, both for body and soul, upon the resurrection, when we shall
be fit to approach the throne of glory, and serve our God in a perfect
manner, in the eternal temple of heaven. For this life, though our
consecration be not finished, yet here we are styled an holy priesthood,
to minister before the throne of grace, though not before the throne of
glory. Now, if we be washed from our sins in the laver of regenera
tion, we may draw near to God, as the priests under the law were
washed in the laver, and then came to the altar. It holdeth good both
in this life and in the life to come, that none but the washed can come
so near to God, either before the throne of grace or throne of glory.
The throne of grace : Heb. x. 22, ' Let us draw near with a true heart,
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con
science, and our bodies washed with pure water.' So Heb. ix. 14, ' How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit,
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God ? ' In the state of glory : Kev. vii. 14, 15,
' These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his
temple.' The persecuted saints, who came out of great tribulation, they
first washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, before they were
admitted, as priests, to stand before the throne of God, to serve him
day and night in his temple. Sanctification must go before conse
cration; and the more sanctified, the more consecrated. When our
90 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, &
sanctifi cation is finished, then our consecration is consummate ; and
then we shall have a full communion with our God, a clear vision of
his eternal beauty, and as great a fruition of his godhead as we shall
be capable of, in a state of full contentment, joy, and blessedness.
2. The privileges are exceedingly great, to be consecrated to so high
a dignity ; that we should be consecrated or set apart for God, to be
objects of his special grace, and instruments of his glory and service.
Much more, that we should be advanced to so great a dignity as to be
lyings and priests to God. We share in Christ's own dignity. He was
a king and a priest, so are we ; he had an unction, so have we ; he was
Christ, we are Christians : by virtue of our union with him, we are
partakers of his kingdom and priesthood. The church of Israel was
called ' a kingdom of priests,' Exod. xix. 6 ; and believers in the new
testament are called ' a royal priesthood,' 1 Peten ii. 9 ; not to disturb
civil kings, or the order God hath instituted in the church ; for it is
kings and priests ' to God,' not to the world. Let us consider these
privileges asunder.
[1.] Kings. King is a name of honour, power, and ample possession.
(1.) Here we reign spiritually, as we vanquish the devil, the world,
and the flesh in any measure. It is a princely thing to be above these
inferior things, and to trample them under our feet in an holy and
heavenly pride. An heathen could say, Hex est qui metuit nihil, rex
est qui cupit nihil He is a king that fears nothing, and desires nothing.
He that is above the hopes and fears of the world. He that hath his
heart in heaven, and is above temporal accidents, the ups and downs
of the world, the world beneath his heart and affections, this man is of
a kingly spirit. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, neither is a
believer's : Kev. v. 10, ' Thou hast made us unto our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on the earth,' viz., in a spiritual way. It is
a beastly thing to serve our lusts, but kingly to have our conversations
in heaven, and vanquish the world : 1 John v. 4, 5, ' Whosoever is born
of God overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? ' To live up to our
faith and love with a noble royal spirit.
(2.) Hereafter we shall reign visibly and gloriously, when we shall
sit upon thrones with Christ, at his last coming to judge the world, and
angels themselves : Mat. xix. 28, 'Verily, I say unto you, that ye which
have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit
on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel ; ' Luke xxii. 29, 30, ' I appoint unto you a
kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye may eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel/ This was spoken at the Lord's supper, which is a
pledge of it : ' The upright shall have dominion over them in the
morning,' Ps. xlix. 14.
(3.) They shall be kings eternally in heaven : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear
not, little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom ; ' 2 Tim. ii. 12, 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with him;'
that is, in heaven. With respect to this right, title, and interest, so
they are made kings. We are heirs in Christ : Eoin. viii. 17, ' If
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 91
children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ : if we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.' We are heirs
of a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
[2.] Priests. That was a great dignity among the Jews. To this
all Christians are now advanced : 1 Peter ii. 5, ' Ye are an holy priest
hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.'
Our sacrifices are not expiatory, but gratulatory ; not sin-offerings, but
thank-offerings ; not typical, but spiritual. Jesus Christ is the only
sin-offering. Our thank-offerings are either ourselves : Rom. xii. 1, ' I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service.' Or our duties, which are spiritual offerings. We
offer not beasts, which were typical, but the calves of our lips, our
prayers and praises : Heb. xiii. 15, ' By him therefore let us offer the
sacrifice of praise to God continually ; that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name.' Or alms : ver. 16, ' But to do good, and to
communicate, forget not ; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased ; '
Phil. iv. 18, ' But I have all, and abound ; I am full, having received
of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you ; an odour of a
sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.' Now this is
a great honour, that we should be separated by the Lord from all the
rest of the world, and admitted into such a nearness and access to God
with boldness, and hope of being accepted through Christ.
Use 1. In the general, all this should stir up our hearts to give
continual praise and glory to Christ our blessed Redeemer. So doth
the apostle here ; that is the use he maketh of it: ' To him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever, Amen." It is a thing to be -reproved in
Christians that we take so little time to admire, honour, and praise our
Redeemer, which yet is a great part of our work. Surely if you had a
due sight of his excellency, or a sense and taste of the riches of his
goodness and love, you would be more in this delightful work. Usually
praise is a stranger to our worship ; and however we are enlarged in
confession of sin or supplication for such things as we want, yet we are
straitened in our gratulations. Surely lauding and praising God in
Christ is as necessary as the other parts of worship : Ps. xxii. 3, God
is said to ' inhabit the praises of Israel ; ' that is, in Israel, where he is
praised. The great end of worship is not the relief of man so much as
the honour of God ; therefore we should not only ask things needful
for ourselves, and mind merely the supply of our necessities, but the
honour of Christ : Ps. 1. 23, ' Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.' If
God will account it an honour to be well thought of and spoken of by
his creature, we should more abound in this work. Why are we then
so scanty in praises and thanksgivings ? The reasons of this defect are
self-love ; we are eager to have blessings, but we forget to return to
give God the glory. Prayer is a work of necessity, but praise is a work
of mere duty. Self-love puts all upon prayer, but the love of God
upon praise. Again, stupid negligence ; we do not gather up matter
of thanksgiving, nor watch in our prayers, nor seek after matter for it:
Col. iv. 2, ' Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanks
giving.'
2. More particularly, let us take our example from this doxology, ' To
92 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.' We can but
ascribe to Christ what he hath already, but we must do it heartily.
Observe here (1.) The things ascribed to Christ, ' Glory and dominion/
(2.) The manner of ascription ; it is imperative. (3.) The duration,
' For ever and ever.' (4.) The seal of all, in the word ' Amen.'
[1.] The things ascribed to Christ, ' Glory and dominion." In other
places it is honour and power everlasting : 1 Tim. vi. 16, ' Who only
hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach
unto ; whom no man hath seen, nor can see ; to whom be honour and
power everlasting, Amen.' In the Lord's prayer more fully : Mat. vi.
13, ' For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen.'
Where by ' kingdom ' is meant right and authority to dispose of all
things according to his own pleasure ; by ' power,' strength and all-
sufficiency to execute what he pleaseth ; by ' glory,' his honour, which
is the result of all that he doth. Clara cum laude notitia Excellency
discovered with praise. We desire that he may be more honoured, and
brought into request and esteem in the world. Here we have but
two words, 'glory' and 'dominion.' 'Glory,' that is, just praise and
esteem ; gracious hearts think they can never set Christ high enough
in their esteem and praise ; this is all they can return to him for his
great benefits. 'Glory/ that he may have the honour, as they the
comfort. ' Dominion ' implieth lordship and sovereignty ; this they
would have given to Christ as his due by his own purchase and God's
assignment : Rom. xiv. 9, ' For to this end Christ both died, and rose,
and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living/ It
was God's end : Phil. ii. 10, ' That at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow/
[2.] The form is imperative, as binding themselves and others to
give him glory and dominion. Themselves in the first place, and that
not only with the tongue, but with the heart ; not only in word, but
in deed. So they would give him glory, praise him with their lips,
and honour him with their lives. They would make that their work
and scope, that this may be the real language of their hearts and actions,
which speak much louder than words. These ' show forth the praises
of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light,'
1 Peter ii. 9, that really they may be the glory of Christ : 2 Cor. viii.
23, ' They are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ ; '
2 Thes. i. 12, ' That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified
in you/ So for dominion ; the practical acknowledgment is better
than the verbal : Luke vi. 46, ' Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do
not the things that I say ? ' Mat. vii. 21, ' Not every one that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven/ Christ was
mocked when they cried, ' Hail, king of the Jews ! ' Mat. xxvii. 29,
and yet they crucified him. If we would have dominion given to
Christ, we must look upon ourselves as not our own, but his ; not live
to ourselves, or use ourselves for ourselves, but resign up ourselves
absolutely to him. Then for others, such is their love to Christ and
the souls of men, that true Christians desire that Christ may not only be
glorified by themselves, but others ; that he may be known, worshipped,
and believed on in the world, especially those about them ; as fire
turneth all things about it into fire.
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 93
[3.] The duration, 'For ever and ever.' In all doxologies a long
duration is expressed. They desire not only the present age may glorify
God, but the future. When we are dead and gone, the Lprd remaineth,
and they would not have him remain without praise and honour. It is
the comfort of their souls, when dying, that God shall have a people to
praise him ; and they prize their own salvation the more, that they shall
live for ever to glorify God ; that, as God's blessings are everlasting, so
shall be their praises.
[4.] It is ratified by a solemn attestation, 'Amen.' It is nota
desiderii et supplicationis ; by it we testify our fervent affection, and
strength of desire after the glory of Christ. We should have an Amen
for our praises as well as for our prayers ; not only to say, ' Jesus,
master, have mercy on us, Amen ; ' but, ' To him be glory for ever and
ever, Amen,'
SERMON II.
And hath made us "kings and priests unto God and his Father.
KEY. i. 6.
I SHALL take up this subject again, and speak of our priesthood, when
we shall be admitted into the immediate presence of God, and praise
him for evermore. There is a ministration before the throne of grace,
or before the throne of glory ; before the throne of grace we minister
in this life, before the throne of glory in the life to come. Of the
latter I shall now speak, because it is a truth commonly overlooked.
Dpct. That the priesthood which we have by Christ concerneth our
ministration in the heavenly temple.
I shall prove it by these arguments
1. Because a Christian is conformed to Christ, and made like him in
all things. Christ must Trpwrevew, first it in all things: Col. i. 18,
' That in all things he might have the pre-eminence ; ' Rom. viii. 29,
' Whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born amongst many
brethren.' Now if I shall prove to you that Christ was not consecrated
to his everlasting priesthood till he died, then it is very congruous
that it should be so with a Christian ; for our office dependeth upon
his, and is carried on in a way of conformity to his. Now, that Christ
was consecrated at his death, I prove by these places : Heb. v. 9, ' And
being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him ; ' that is, when he had ' learned obedience by the
things which he suffered,' ver. 8. And Heb. ii. 10, ' The captain of
our salvation was made perfect through sufferings ; ' that is, fully con
secrated, and fitted to be a priest, to perform that office to our comfort.
His death is expressed by a notion of perfection : Luke xiii. 32, ' Behold,
I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third
day I shall be perfected ; ' that is, shall suffer death. It is good to
94 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
inquire in what sense, in these and in many other places, Christ is
said to be made perfect ; it is not meant of his personal perfection, but
official. As to his person, as he was God, he was perfect from all
eternity ; as God-man, he was perfect from the first moment of his con
ception. The word reXeuatfek, ' being made perfect/ relateth to his
office, and may be rendered ' consecrated,' as well as ' made perfect ; '
' being consecrated, he became,' &c. ; and ' it behoved the captain of our
salvation to be consecrated through sufferings.' The word signifieth,
in its first sense, to finish and accomplish a thing. That which is
brought to an end is perfected ; so was Christ as a priest perfected ;
that is, fit to minister before God as a priest. But that it should be
rendered consecrated I prove
[1.] Because the word is rendered consecrated elsewhere : Heb. vii.
28, ' Consecrated for evermore.' In the margin, ' perfected,' rere\eia)-
lievov. What is in the old testament, ' Thou shalt consecrate Aaron and
his sons,' Exod. xxix. 9, the Septuagint render, Kal reXeiwo-et? 'Aapwvos
Ttt<? %etp9, thou shalt perfect, or fill the hand of Aaron and his sons.
And the sacrifice of consecration is called dvcria rrjs reheidxreax;, the
sacrifice of perfecting or completing, because the priest was to pass
through some ceremonies; and these being done, he is said Te\eiovcrdai t
to be consummate, or made perfect, or fully authorised to perform the
priest's office.
[2.] I prove it from the context in Heb. v. There the apostle is
discoursing of Christ's everlasting priesthood, and his being made
perfect is with respect to that office. He was not perfect or fitted for
that work till he stood before God with a sacrifice in his hand, till he
had offered up himself with prayers, and tears, and strong cries, and
had learned obedience by the things which he suffered ; but then he
was made perfect, for the rites of his consecration were over ; that is,
his agonies and bloody sufferings ; then he was fully consecrated and
completed to. be a priest. So that Christ's solemn consecration was
at his death.
[3.] The reason of the thing showeth it. Jesus Christ was to be ' a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people,' Heb. ii. 17. These two
attributes, ' merciful' and ' faithful,' refer to God and us. Merciful to
help and relieve sinful miserable man ; faithful with respect to God,
in performing all things which belong to his sacerdotal office, and
going through with his work given him in charge, till he hath fully
finished it. The best and most merciful high priest that ever was
must be made in the best and most convenient manner. Well, then, he
is made perfect when he hath had a thorough sense of our misery, and
took the course prescribed to remove it ; when his heart was entend-
ered, and his hand was filled with the purest sacrifice that ever was
offered.; and so by his agonies and bloody sufferings he was perfected,
consecrated, and fully qualified to minister before the Lord, and to
intercede for poor creatures, and to bless them with the blessing of
eternal life. His priestly actions after the order of Aaron were his
consecration to his everlasting blessed priesthood after the order of
Melchisedec. Without these sufferings he could neither be a faithful
nor a merciful high priest, nor satisfy his Father's justice, nor have a
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 95
full feeling from experience of the creatures' misery. Well, then, as
Christ was consecrated at his death, so is a Christian who runneth
parallel with Christ in all his offices. As Christ had an inauguration
into that priesthood he executed upon earth at his baptism, so hath a
Christian for his spiritual priesthood ; as soon as washed in the laver
of regeneration, hut for his everlasting priesthood at death.
2. My next argument is, this suiteth with the other privilege of kings.
We are made kings as well as priests. Now, as our kingly office is
not perfect till we come to heaven, so neither our priestly ; and there
fore it mainly respecteth our ministration in the heavenly temple.
How is a poor Christian a king here, unless in a riddle, ev alvfypaTi,
as he vanquisheth the devil, the world, and the flesh? as it is a
princely thing to be above inferior things, and to trample them under
our feet. The heathen could say, Hex est qui metuit nihil, rex est qui
cupit nihil He is a king that is above the hopes and fears of the
world, that feareth nothing and desireth nothing. This is indeed, in
a metaphor, a kingly spirit, to have our hearts in heaven, and to look
upon all sublunary things as beneath our care and affections. Christ's
kingdom is not of this world, neither is a believer's. Here upon earth
we reign only in a spiritual way ; but the privilege cometh fully to be
verified when we tread Satan under our feet, and triumph over
enemies, nnd reign visibly and gloriously, sitting upon thrones with
Christ at his coming, judging the world and angels themselves : Mat.
xix. 28, ' Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in
the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in. the throne of his
glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes
of Israel ; ' Luke xxii. 29, 30, ' I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my
Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table
in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; '
Ps. xlix. 14, ' The upright shall have dominion over them in the
morning; ' and 1 Cor. vi. 2, 'Know ye not that we shall judge the
world ? ' and ver. 3, ' Know ye not that we shall judge angels ? ' neither
will this kingdom be terminated and ended at the day of judgment, but
they shall be kings eternal in heaven : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little
flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom ; ' 2
Tim. ii. 12, 'If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him ; '
that is, in heaven. With respect to this title, right, and interest, we
are said ' to be made kings.' Now proportionably, the other privilege,
of ' being made priests,' must be expounded also. We are spiritual
priests upon earth ; we have our sacrifices of prayers, praises and alms,
and devoting ourselves to God ; but this office is not completed till we
come to heaven, and do immediately minister before the Lord. Then
we have entrance into the holiest : Heb. x. 19, ' Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.'
Not in spirit, but in person ; for if the chief part of our kingly office
be yet behind, why not the chief part of our priestly office also ?
3. Then we are qualified and prepared. Sanctification must go
before consecration ; and the more sanctified, the more consecrated ;
and when our sanctification is finished, then our consecration is
consummated, and not till then. Now in this world our justification
and sanctification is imperfect ; we are not got above our legal fears,
96 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
and grace is very weak in us. You know before we can serve the
living God ' our consciences must be purged from dead works/ Heb.
ix. 14, as the high priest was not to approach God without his washings
lest he die; and we are bidden to 'draw nigh to God with a true heart,
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water,' Heb. x. 22. If we
have the privilege of priests, we must perform the duties of priests.
Now we are not perfect as appertaining to the conscience, nor are we
fully cleansed and sanctified, till the veil of the flesh be removed, and
we be presented to God without spot and wrinkle. Somewhat is begun
indeed, that will tend to, and end in, perfect sanctification, enough to
qualify us for our ministration at this distance from God. There is
enough done on Christ's part, by way of impetration and merit :
Heb. x. 14, ' For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that
are sanctified,' or consecrated ; he hath paid the price ; but as to the
application, that is by degrees. The priest under the law was seven
days in consecrating ; this figured all the time that interveneth before
we enter upon the everlasting sabbath. Our whole life is the time of
consecration, which goeth on by degrees, and will be made complete,
both for body and soul, at the resurrection ; for then shall we be made
fit to approach the throne of glory, and serve our God in a perfect
manner in the eternal temple of heaven. In this life our consecration
is not yet finished, we cannot come so near God. We are qualified
indeed to come to the throne of grace, but not qualified to come to the
throne of glory ; but the work is a-doing, and in time it will be accom
plished.
4. We have not the full privileges of priests till then, which is inti
macy, full communion, nearness of access to God, and ministration
before him. This is the privilege we have as priests. The apostle
telleth us, Heb. ix. 8, ' The Holy Ghost signifieth that the way to the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle
was yet standing.' How did the Holy Ghost signify this ? I answer
By the whole economy and frame of that dispensation. God kept state
and majesty then, and his people must not come too near him ; the com
mon Israelite must not come too near the sanctuary ; they were not to
camp or pitch their tents round about it, but only the Levites, lest they
die: Num. i. 52, 53, 'And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents
every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard through
out the host. But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of
testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children
of Israel.' It was a dangerous thing for the common Israelites to be too
near the symbols of God's presence ; to teach us the distance between
God and men, and their unworthiness to come near him and his holy
things. But though the Levites might encamp near it, yet none but the
priests must enter into the tabernacle : Num. iv. 18-20, ' Cut ye not off
the tribe of the family of the Kohathites from among the Levites ; but
this do unto them, that they may live, and not die ; when they ap
proach unto the most holy things, Aaron and his sons shall go in, and
appoint them every one to his service, and to his burden : but they shall
not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.'
They were to keep near the tabernacle, and the Kohathites to bear
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 97
things which they must not see and touch, upon pain of death. And
this was not only threatened, but executed on the Bethshemites, which
was a city of Levites, when they looked into the ark : 1 Sam. vi. 19, 20,
' And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into
the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and
threescore and ten men. And the people lamented, because the Lord
had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men
of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?
and to whom shall he go up from us ? ' Well, God kept at a distance
from that people, and would not have them too familiar with him ; but
the priests might come near and minister before the Lord, but not till
they were consecrated, and till they had cleansed themselves : Exod.
xxx. 20, 21, 'When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation,
they shall wash with water, that they die not ; and when they come
near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto the
Lord. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die
not.' But though an ordinary priest might come to the altar of burnt-
offering, yet the high priest was only to enter into the sacrary, or holiest
of all ; and that not when he pleased, but only once a year : Lev. xvi.
2, ' And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that
he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the
mercy-seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not.' The high priest
was a solemn type of Christ, yet he was not to be too familiar with God.
The people were sensible of this state and distance which God kept,
and murmured at it : Num. xvii. 12, 13, ' And the children of Israel
spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish ;
whosoever cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord, shall
die : shall we be consumed with dying ? ' What did the Holy Ghost
signify by all this ? That the way of the holiest of all was not yet
made manifest. But now God is more familiar with his people ; a
Christian hath the privilege of the high priest, a privilege which the
most eminent person of that dispensation could enjoy but once a year,
in the most solemn service which ever he performed, and that not till
after many washings and purifications. In every time of need we may
come to the throne of grace. It was dangerous heretofore to thrust
themselves upon God, but now the Lord is willing to admit us into his
presence ; gospel-believers may come to him, the fountain of grace is
not inaccessible. Well, but though we may come to the throne of
grace, we cannot come to the throne of glory, thence we are all shut
out ; no man can immediately approach the throne of glory till he be
both fully and perfectly justified and sanctified ; for the present we are
npt fit to come nigh him ; as Absalom, when his peace was made, and
he was permitted to come home to Jerusalem, yet he was not admitted
to his father's sight and presence : 2 Sam. xiv. 24, ' The king said, Let
him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face.' And Esther,
when chosen for a spouse for the great king Ahasuerus, yet she was to
* accomplish the months of her purification,' Esther ii. 12. We have
access to the throne of grace, that is all we can have in this life ; but
hereafter we shall have access to the throne of glory, then we shall
have full communion with our God, and a clear vision of his eternal
VOL. xix. G
98 SEKMONS UPON KEVELATION I. 5, 6.
beauty, and as great a fruition of his godhead as we shall be capable
of, in a state of full contentment, joy, and blessedness.
5. If there be a temple in the other world, then there are priests, and
there will be a ministration ; but now heaven is often represented as a
temple. As the temple under the law was a type of Christ, in whom
the fulness of the godhead dwelt bodily, and a type of the church, in
which God manifesteth his power and presence ; so also it was a type
of heaven, and so frequently applied. As in the temple there were
three partitions, the outward court, the holy place, and the holy of
holies; so is there the airy heaven, the starry heaven, and the heaven
of heavens, as it is called, Acts iii. 21, ' Whom the heavens must receive
until the times of restitution of all things ; ' and the third heaven : 2
Cor. xii. 2, ' I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, such an
one caught up to the third heaven.' This third heaven, the seat of
God and of the blessed saints, is often called ' the holiest,' with re
spect to the type in the temple or sanctuary. Therefore that is called
' a worldly sanctuary/ Heb. ix. 1, and ' holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true ; ' that is, heaven itself, ver. 24. The
earthly or worldly sanctuary was the throne and palace of God, residing
as a king in the midst of his people, which figured or shadowed a more
excellent throne and palace, which is heaven, where God doth manifest
his presence in a far more glorious manner. Well, then, in this
temple must we minister, and be admitted to a nearer attendance upon
God.
6. One great part of our sacrifices and oblations remaineth everlast
ingly to be done by us, and that is the sacrifice of praise and thanks
giving ; it is a great branch of the thank-offerings of the gospel : Heb.
xiii. 15, ' By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.'
And in heaven they cease not. Prayer suiteth more with our imper
fect state, when we are compassed about with divers infirmities and
necessities ; but the angels praise God, and so do the blessed spirits.
We shall then have a fuller sense of the mercies and goodness of God,
when our redemption is full and complete, and a clearer sight of his excel
lencies when we see him face to face. Here we do but tune our
instruments, and prepare for the work of heaven, but then we perform
it. We are here but as learners, when we see God by faith, and under
stand a little of the love of Christ, but then as practisers. Therefore
certainly to be kings and priests unto God doth not respect the present
life only, but our ministration in the heavenly temple. There is a ' for
ever ' always affixed to the doxologies of the saints, to show that now
they do but begin in the work which they shall complete hereafter.
7. The scriptures do plainly express that our service is not ended
with our lives, but, as we still stand in the relation of creatures to God,
so we still glorify him and serve him : Kev. vii. 14-16, 'And he said
unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have
washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb :
therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and
night in the temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them, and they shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more," &c.
There is the explanation of the mystery of being washed in Christ's
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 99
blood, and made kings and priests unto God. This office they chiefly
perform when they come to enjoy their happiness before the throne of
God and in the heavenly temple. And what is the work there ? They
serve him day and night ; they do not their service then by fits and
starts, but constantly. A type whereof were the priests under the law,
who, in their courses, were admitted day and night to be in the temple :
Ps. cxxxiv. 1, ' Bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which
by night stand in the house of the Lord.' But what was done by many
in their turns is now done by the same persons continually ; for they
are never weary, and there is no intermission in their service. And God
always dwelleth amongst them ; they sljall not be at a distance from
God, nor he at a distance from them ; but they shall still enjoy his
company, as dwelling in. one house with him ; for there shall not be sin
nor sorrow any more, and then shall they praise God cheerfully. This
will be our work when we are admitted into the most holy place.
8. As heaven hath the notion of a place, a temple, so our estate in
heaven hath the notion of a day or time wherein our priesthood is to
be solemnly exercised; for it is called craySy&mcr/io?, a sabbath or
rest : Heb. iv. 9, ' There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.'
A sabbath is for holy rest, not a time of idleness, but to be religiously
employed ; so this glorious eternal rest, which is prepared for and pro
mised to believers, is not passed over in ease and idleness, but in acts
of worship and adoration. It is a rest from toil and labour, but not
from work and service. On the sabbath-day the sacrifices were
doubled ; the priest had more to do upon that day than any other ; so
in our everlasting sabbatism, we serve God after a more perfect manner
than now we do. On the sabbath, a special delight and rejoicing in
God was to be raised : Isa. Iviii. 13, 14, ' If thou turn away thy foot
from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call
the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt
honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the
Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth,
and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father ; for the mouth of
the Lord hath spoken it.' So in our eternal rest shall we delight our
selves in his presence.
Use 1. It informeth us
1. That our service is an honour, and worship a privilege ; for it is
not only a way to heaven, but a beginning of heaven. Our work there
is a part of our reward. The priestly ministration is so the work of
heaven, that it is also a reward for our present diligence. Well, then,
it is the most blessed life we can live upon earth, to be serving God
and ministering before the Lord, and to be employed in any nearness
about him ; his people desire no sweeter work. Alas ! what is the
work of all the world to this but a toilsome drudgery or base servility ?
Go to the brutish world, what is the work of the drunkard, glutton,
gamester, or fornicator, compared with that of the spiritual priest?
They are priests to feed the belly, that base dunghill-god: Phil. iii. 19,
' Whose god is their belly.' Their business is to provide for and please
the flesh. Nay ; go to the more refined part of the world, the covetous
and ambitious worldlings ; they aim at nothing beyond this life ; but
100 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
the spiritual priest contirmetk for ever ; his service is begun, and will
ever last ; his work is his wages.
2. That it is no easy matter to be familiar with God, and to draw
nigh to him in worship. We are stupid, and therefore not sensible of
it. You see what distance God kept under the law, and what distance
he yet keepeth as to his immediate presence. Surely ' God is greatly
to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence
of all that are about him,' Ps. Ixxxix. 7. The redeemed are honoured
to have access to God with boldness, yet they ought to be humbly sen
sible of the privilege. Every nearer approach to God is an enlargement
of honour. We must keep an even hand between natural bondage
and irreverence. Natural bondage ; we are sometimes afraid to come
into God's presence, and doubt of access, being so unworthy to come
before the Lord ; but we are privileged by our calling ; Christ by his
death hath made us kings and priests. The priests were sanctified to
draw nearer unto God than the common people, and to be employed
in his most holy service ; so if we be cleansed by the blood of Christ,
we are separated from the ungodly world, and may acquaint him with
all our desires, griefs, and fears. On the other side, against irreverence.
It is no easy matter to come before the Lord as we ought to do ; and
we must be sure to bless and thank the Kedeemer for this favour, that
we are made priests of God and Christ, that we are freed from the fears
of the second death : Kev. xx. 6, ' Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection ; on such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ ; ' and we may hope for
a more solemn service.
Use 2. To exhort the children of God
1. To long and hope for the time of their ministration in the
heavenly temple. When the time of our consecration is finished, then
we shall be admitted into this blessed estate. Oh, comfort yourselves
with the forethought of it ! There are many reasons to induce us
[1.] Because then we shall see him whom we worship, and stand
before his throne. This is often promised : Ps. xvii. 15, 'As for me,
I shall behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied, when I
awake, with thy likeness ; ' 1 John iii. 2, ' When he shall appear we
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' So 1 Cor. xiii. 12,
' Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face ; ' John
xvii. 24, ' Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be
with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast
given me.' Now it is a blessed thing to see what we love, and possess
what we see. The priests here, though they do not worship an unknown
God, yet they worship an unseen God. The Romans, when they brake
into the sanctum sanctorum, and saw no image there, gave out that the
high priest did worship the clouds. The world suspecteth the God
whom we worship ; but there we see him face to face, with a clear and
distinct vision: 2 Cor. v. 7, 'For we walk by faith, not by sight.'
There vision succeedeth in the room of faith, fruition of hope, and
perfect love of that weak adherence which now we put forth towards
God. If God should suffer himself to be seen by his creature in the
condition to which sin hath reduced him, it would prove rather a ground
of fear and astonishment than of love and fruition ; or else the majesty
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 101
must be clouded with some allay of condescension, which would not
sufficiently reveal him to us. The immediate presence of God, which
is our felicity in heaven, would be our misery upon earth. The scripture
telleth us, Exod. xxxiii. 20, ' No man shall see him and live.' And
Manoah, Judges xiii. 22, ' We shall surely die, because we have seen God.'
We cannot look upon this glorious sun but we are in danger of losing
our life. together with our sight. The scripture sometimes maketh God
to dwell in darkness, sometimes in light inaccessible, to note the
incapacity of our faculties, and the incomprehensible splendour of his
glorious majesty. We are not able to pierce through this darkness or
endure this light. But the majesty of God is not there formidable,
but comfortable ; for we shall behold the glorious God in a glorified
estate, both of soul and body.
[2.] We shall serve him perfectly, and without weakness, weariness,
and distraction.
(1.) Here is weakness. What dull and low conceptions have we of
God ! What heartless, irreverent, and poor expressions of his glorious
excellency whenever we "come to worship before him t such as should
make us ashamed to open our lips before the Lord : Isa. vi. 5, ' Woe
is me, for I am undone,' saith the prophet Isaiah, ' for I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for
mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Or" as Job, chap,
xl. 4, ' Behold I am vile ; what shall I answer thee ? I will lay
ray hand upon my mouth.' The best of God's servants, when their
eyes are but a little opened to see the glory of that God they speak to,
how sensible would they be of the shortness of their apprehension and
expressions of that God they speak to ! Alas I how can such narrow
hearts frame an apprehension, or receive an impression of such an
infinite greatness and eternal goodness as there is in God ! But when
we shall see him as he is, then we shall better praise him, and conceive
more suitably of him.
(2.) Here is weariness, and we cannot endure long under our weak
duties, neither as to the frame of body nor mind ; but there God in
communion is always new and fresh to us every moment. And the
more we look upon the object, the more is the faculty fortified and
strengthened in conversing with God : Mat. xviii. 10, ' In heaven their
angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.'
The blessed spirits are never weary of beholding God, and enjoying his
glorious presence.
(3.) Here is distraction. We pretend, when we worship God, to
leave the world, and turn the back upon all things else, and to set our
selves before the throne of God ; but alas ! we bring the flesh along
with us, and that will have its excursions, and so our hearts arc stolen
away from under Christ's own arm. We mingle sulphur with our
incense, groan under divers infirmities : ' We cannot do what we would
do,' Gal. v. 17. But there is nothing to divert/ us from thinking of
God ; there is no blemish in priest or sacrifice ; nothing |W^11 appear in
us displeasing unto God, which is a comfort in our present weaknesses.
[3.] We shall then serve God uninterruptedly ; for there shall be
no impediment of business, nor need of sleep. Here earthly occasions
straiten Christ, and crowd up his interest in the sou], and we spend
102 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
almost half our time in sleep, not showing one act of thankfulness to
God ; but then ' we shall be ever with the Lord/ 1 Thes. iv. 17. We
shall always stand before his throne of glory, and abide in his blessed
presence. Our labour shall not need repose, nor shall the night ever
draw a curtain upon that day. There will be no miseries, wants, and
necessities to distract us/ and take off our minds. The whole strength
of our souls is carried out to God, and our time is spent wholly and
only in worshipping and serving God. Constant and perpetual solemn
service is a celestial privilege, and they that serve God most uninter
ruptedly come nearest heaven, for there Christ is ever with us, and we
ever with him : 2 Cor. v. 8, ' We are confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.'
When absent from the body, we are present with the Lord, and shall
follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
[4.] There we are admitted into a nearer communion with God
than now in this mortal estate. We draw nigh to him now, but we
are not so nigh but there is some distance ; but in the palace of glory
our approach will be so near as to take away all distance, and we shall
have immediate and full communion with God. Now God is in heaven
and we upon earth, we receive no more of God than an ordinance can
convey to us. Here and there he droppeth in a little comfort and
quickening into the soul ; the pipe cannot convey much, and the vessel
can hold less ; the means are narrow, and the person is not capacitated
to be filled up with all the fulness of God ; but then the Lord will do
his work by himself, the means shall not straiten him ; God will
communicate himself without means, and be instead of all means ; he
will be all in all, and therefore will communicate his grace in full per
fection. The more we draw nigh to God here, the more like him.
Moses, while he conversed with God in the mount, his face shone.
Christ was transformed in his prayers : Luke ix. 29, ' And as he
prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment
was white and glistering.' So by proportion in heaven ; the nearer
we draw to God, the more we enjoy of him : 1 John iii. 2, ' When he
shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' Per-,
fection of holiness is the glory and happiness of the saints in heaven ;
as iron by lying in the fire seemeth to be all fire ; when it is red-hot
the qualities of fire are imprinted on it ; so we, by being ever with the
Lord, and ministering in his presence, have more of the divine nature
communicated unto us.
[5.] There is the unanimous conjunction of all the saints in the
praises of God, or a joining in comfort, without jarring or difference.
The apostle biddeth us, Rom. xv. 6, ' With one mind and with one
mouth to glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' It is
our duty, but never performed to the full, but when we meet together in
that great Travyyvpts, that council of souls, or ' the general assembly and
church of the first-born,' which the apostle describeth, Heb. xii. 23,
' The spirits of just men made perfect,' or consecrated. It is comfort
able to join in worship with the people of God now. Moses preferred
it, with afflictions, before all the riches, and honours, and pleasures he
enjoyed in Egypt : Heb. xi. 24, ' Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.'
SERMONS UPON KEVELATION I. 5, 6. 103
But then is the communion of saints completed, when all are admitted
to the vision and clearest knowledge of God, and have the most perfect
adherence and love to him. Now what an happy time will that be,
when we and all the holy ones of God shall, with the same enlarged
affection, set about the same work ! as our groans here made but one
sound, and our conjoined tears but one stream, and our united desires but
one prayer, so all our praises then shall make but one melody and har
mony. If it be an happiness to live with the saints in their imperfection,
when sin doth often embitter their society, surely it is an happiness to
live with them for ever when they are purged and freed from sin, and
fully consecrated and fitted to minister before the Lord.
[6.] To think of God, and to rejoice in his glory, and to love and
praise him, will be our great employment. There we shall be intent
upon our choice and noble work, which is praising and lauding God :
Ps. Ixxxiv. 4, ' Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ; they are still
praising thee.' Praises now are a part of our sacrifices, and must be
mingled with our prayers : Phil. iv. 6, ' In everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God.'
So Bev. v. 8, ' The four beasts and four-and-twenty elders fell down
before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full
of odours, which are the prayers of the saints.' Harps signify their
praises and thanksgivings. Here it cometh in by way of mixture, but
there it is our sole employment. There is no need of prayers, for there
are no sins, nor wants, nor necessities there; all is praise. David
calleth upon the angels ' to bless the Lord,' Ps. ciii. 20, to tell us
what they do. And when a multitude of them descended at Christ's
birth, Luke ii. 13, 14, they presently fell a-lauding and praising God,
' Glory be to God in the highest.' It is the opinion of the ancient
Hebrews that every day they sing praises to God, and that in the
morning ; this they gather from Gen. xxxii. 6, ' Let me go, for the day
breaketh;' which place the Targum of Jerusalem thus explaineth,
* Let me go, for the pillar of the morning ascends ; and behold, the
hour approacheth that the angels are to sing.' This was their opin
ion. Sure we are that the angels bless God, and that in an eminent
manner, as appeareth by frequent passages of scripture, where they
are called upon to bless the Lord ; for though the speech be in the
imperative mood, as if it were hortatory, yet it is to be expounded by
the indicative, as narrative of what the angels do. Particularly we
read they blessed God for his own excellence : Isa. vi. 1-3, ' In the
year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the
seraphims ; each one had six wings ; with twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And
one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.' For the creation : Job
xxxviii. 4-7, ' Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the
earth ? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the
measures thereof, if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line
upon it ? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened ? or who
laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning-stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy ?' For the nativity of Christ :
104 SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
Luke ii. 13, 14, 'And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the
highest, on earth peace, good will toward men." So they blessed
Christ : Kev. v. 11, 12, ' I beheld, and I heard the voice of many
angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders ; and the
number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands
of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was
slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and
honour, and glory, and blessing.' Though they cannot fully compre
hend God, yet they do it far more clearly than we. They apprehend
God's excellency and perfection in himself; they know also the
excellency of his works, creation, and providence, and the redemption
of mankind. ' Then we shall know as we are known,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12,
and understand the faithfulness of God's conduct in bringing us to
glory. blessed time when we shall fall upon the work of angels,
when we shall have a sublime understanding to know God, an heart
to love him, and a mouth to praise him for evermore ! We shall not
need any excitement, but be willing and ready to do it. We have
greater cause of blessing God than the angels have. It is a question
whether an innocent or a penitent person is more bound to thank God ?
An innocent man is bound to praise God in respect of the greatness
of the benefit, and the continuance of it ; but a penitent man in respect
of the freeness and graciousness of it. The freeness and graciousness
is much more conspicuous towards men. God was indeed good
and bountiful to the angels, creating them out of nothing, endowing
them with many excellent gifts ; but to man sinful was God good
indeed ; he loved us as enemies ; when his justice, offended by sin,
put a bar to our salvation, he spared not his beloved Son, but delivered
him to a cursed death in our room and stead.
2. To exhort us to prepare ourselves for this estate ; and let us
labour that we may be such as may be counted meet to minister before
the Lord in his heavenly temple. To this end
[1.] Let us hasten the acts which belong to our consecration, and
attend upon them with more seriousness, which is the cleansing of the
soul from the guilt and stain of sin. From the guilt of sin : Kom. v.
1, 2, ' Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ ; by whom also we have access by faith
unto this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God/ Comfortable access to God here in the world depends upon our
justification ; the more clear that is, the more we are fitted to come
before the Lord. From the stain of sin : Mat. v. 8, ' Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God.' Though all see enough of God
to satisfaction, these see more than others do. Therefore the more we
cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, the more of God
shall we see, and the sooner shall we be admitted into his blessed
presence. It was an old observation, even among the heathens, bv </>iXei
609 a.7rodv^a-Ki i/eo9, that he whom God loveth dieth young. Not that
all that die young are beloved of God ; but ordinary observation will
teach you this, that let a man more than ordinarily improve in purity of
heart, though God may lend him to the world for an example for some
time, yet they are taken to God sooner than others ; or if they are
SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6. 105
continued in the world, they are continued under more weaknesses,
and do with more earnestness expect their translation to the everlasting
priesthood.
[2.] Let us begin our sacrifices, and discharge our priestly office now,
and perform all the duties which belong to our ministration with more
fidelity. Some of our duties are proper only to the present state, as
consecrating ourselves to God, and using ourselves for God ; that is out
of date then, for our consecration is over before we come there. It is
undeniable that the blessed spirits all live to God : Luke xx. 38, ' He
is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto him.' But
there is no need of giving up ourselves to God, for then we possess God.
Mercy is useless in an estate where misery cannot approach ; therefore
now it must be exercised. None are priests in heaven but those that
have acted the priest's part upon earth. But praise holds good now,
and then too : Ps. cvii. 22, 'Let us sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and declare his works with rejoicing.' This is to tune our instruments,
and to be fitting ourselves for our everlasting work.
[3.] Let us be more frequent and often with God ; for the throne of
grace is the very porch of heaven ; by it we pass to the throne of glory.
Surely that life upon earth is best which is likest to the life of heaven :
Ps. Ixxxiv. 10, ' For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand : I had
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the
tents of wickedness.' Prayer giveth us the nearest familiarity which a
man in flesh can have with God, and is the best preparation for our
entrance upon our everlasting priesthood. A man acquainted with a
God beforehand is not to seek for a God to pray to when he cometh to
die, nor for a mediator to intercede for him, nor for a spirit of adoption
to fly to God as a reconciled Father. Having been frequently enter
tained and accepted by God, he can the better resign his spirit into his
hands, and with more confidence wait for this nearer 'attendance.
Alas ! to go out of the world into unknown and unseen regions, where
we are wholly strangers, how sad is that ! Who will venture into the
ocean who hath not learned to swim in the shallow brooks and streams?
Communion with God in a way of grace is the way to communion
with him in a way of glory. We go to see him face to face whom we
have seen by the eye of faith, to live with him in heaven with whom
we have lived upon earth. Species non Icetificat in patria, quern fides
non consolatur in via Sight will not be joyful to him in heaven whom
faith hath not comforted upon earth. He that hath often heard and
accepted us will not reject us.
3. Let us be more apprehensive of the greatness of the privilege of
drawing nigh to God, that we may improve it accordingly. The priests
were sanctified to draw nearer to God than the common people, and
employed in his holy service. Yea, nearness of ministration before
the Lord is the felicity of the glorified. How must we improve it ?
[1.] Partly to be ashamed of our loathnessto draw nigh to God, and
our weariness of his special service. Oh, let us not shun God as an
enemy, and be loath to come into his special presence, or backward to
converse with him.
[2.] To thankfulness to our Kedeemer. It was purchased by the
blood of Jesus : Heb. x. 19, ' Having therefore, brethren, boldness to
106 SERMONS UPON KEVELATION I. 5, 6.
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.' We may be the more
confident of drawing nigh to him in a way of grace, for he hath pur
chased also our entrance into glory: Eph iii. 12, 'In whom we have
boldness, and access with confidence by the faith of him.'
Use 3. Comfort.
1. Against present weaknesses in duty. There will be a time when
we shall more perfectly express our thanksgiving to God.
2. Against troubles and sufferings. It must be so now, that we may
be conformed to our head ; but no molestation should be an impedi
ment in our work.
3. Against death. It should make us willing to die, that we may
minister before the Lord. If David so longed for the enjoyment of God
in the earthly temple : Ps. Ixiii. 1,2/0 God ! thou art my God ; early
will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for
thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is ; to see thy power
and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary ; ' how much more
cause have we to long for the time when we shall be made priests to
him for ever ?
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
SERMON L
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart : thou shalt in any tvise
rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. LEV. xix. 17.
I AM to speak to you at this time concerning Christian and brotherly
reproof. Our first care should be that we are not sinners ourselves ;
our next, that we partake not of the sins of others ; which may not
only be by counselling and abetting their evil actions, but also by a faulty
connivance and silence, when the glory of God and love to our neigh
bours' souls do loudly call upon us to mind them of their duty and warn
them of their danger. To this end I have made choice of this scripture,
' Thou shalt not hate/ &c. Where take notice
1. Of the removal of the impediment, ' Thou shalt not hate thy
brother in thy heart/
2. An earnest excitement of the duty of reproof, ' Thou shalt in any
wise rebuke thy neighbour.'
3. A reason to enforce it, ' Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him/ or
that thou bear not sin for him.
First, A removal of the impediment or hindrance, ' Thou shalt not
hate thy brother in thy heart.' Hatred is forbidden when rebuke or
reproof is prescribed, for two reasons
1. Because there is a supposition of wrong done ; that is, when any
man ^hath wronged us in anything, let him not nourish hatred or anger
in his bosom, lest by abiding there long, it soureth into malice and
revenge ; rather go and show them the evil that they have done, to
bring them to repentance. It is said of Absalom, 2 Sam. xiii. 22, that
' Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad, for
Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.'
Amnon did the wrong, but Absalom reproved him not, because he hated
him. Implacable malice and desire of revenge is hid under silence and
dissimulation : ' He spake neither good nor bad to Amnon/ to wit, of
that subject of the rape committed upon his sister ; he reproved not
the fact, that so he might conceal his malice, till he found occasion to
put the same in execution ; and this is the fashion of all that regard the
wrong done to themselves, but not the offence done to God. Well, then,
since hatred begets close and cunning dissimulation, till it have a full
advantage to put forth itself, it is opposite to reproof; it is as fire
108 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
raked under ashes, and reserved till another day. The historian Tacitus
observeth it in Tiberius, who being offended by some words spoken in
the senate by Haterius and Scaurus, In Haterium statim invectus,
Scaurum cui implacabilis irascebatur, silentio transmittit The one
he rebuked, the other, whom he implacably hated, he passed by with
silence. Therefore God, well knowing the disposition of man, giveth
this direction by his servant Moses, ' Hate not thy brother in thy heart,
but rebuke him in any wise.' So that you see it is meant of hatred,
rising of offences principally ; wherefore rebuke him, hate him not for
such things. Suitable to this is the law of Christ : Luke xvii. 3, ' Take
heed to yourselves : if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ;
and if he repent, forgive him.' Do your utmost to reduce any that
offendeth, though it be by injuring thee ; do not desire revenge, but
seek an opportunity to pardon him upon his reformation : Mat. xviii.
15, ' If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault
between thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained
thy brother ; ' that is, thy charity must be sure to put off all thoughts
of revenge against him ; yea, it will oblige thee to use all prudent
methods to bring him to a sense of his fault, and the most discreet
and gentle ways are first to be essayed. That is the first reason.
2. He that doth not rebuke his brother when he doth anything
amiss doth indeed hate him, not love him. There are two things
which put us upon reproof zeal for God's glory, and love to our neigh
bour's soul. There is a defect in our zeal if we do not seek to repair
God's honour when it is wounded by others : Ps. Ixix. 9, ' The zeal of
thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that re
proached thee have fallen upon me.' Injuries done to God and religion
affect us no less nearly than personal wrongs done to ourselves. So
there is a defect in our love and charity to others to let them alone in
soul-dangers ; and therefore reproof, as it is opposed to hatred, so it is
opposed also to flattery, which is false and corrupt love : Prov. xxviii.
23, ' He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than
he that flattereth with his tongue.' When we are about to reprove
others for their faults, we are afraid we shall offend them, and that all
friendship will be broken off between us and them, and so are tempted
to connive at others' sinful courses for fear of a rupture and breach
with them. Alas ! at length, though the party be displeased a little
for the present, when he recovereth and cometh to himself again, he
will see that you showed him the true friendship, whereas others that
connived at or flattered him in his sins, however they sought to please
his humour, hated his soul ; and they will love you the better for it,
because you awaken them out of their sins, that would have been their
eternal ruin. It is possible you may enrage a wicked and haughty
scorner, but then you have discharged your duty, and freed your own
soul. But for others, you get the more favour and thanks, because
yon have done a true office of love. So that that which you are afraid
will be an occasion of breaking off friendship, will prove a means to
nourish love : Prov. ix. 8, ' Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee ;
rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.' Gain him to a sense of his
duty, and he will bless God for thee while he hath a day to live. So
Prov. xxvii. 5, 6, ' Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 109
are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.'
Open rebuke is when we plainly, and sometimes sharply, convince men
of their errors or sins they lie in ; this is better than hidden love, for
that is of no use and profit to us. He that reduceth me into the way
when I go astray, and plucketh me out of the fire and water when I
am in danger to be drowned or burned, though he break an arm or
leg ; be that cureth my disease, though by a sharp and troublesome
medicine, doth me a greater benefit than he that professeth great love
to me, and lets me alone to perish, and will not reach an hand to pluck
me out, out of tenderness, as loath to trouble me. That is called
hidden love that doth not make itself known by the offices of love and
friendship, or for fear of offence will not warn a man of his danger ; it
is indeed true hatred. The next verse is to the same purpose. It
may be my friend wounds me, as the physician lets me bleed to cure
my fever ; he doth it in faithfulness. A sharp reproof is there called
' a wound,' but it is the faithfulness of my friend, not done out of rancour
or malice, with a desire to shame and reproach me ; it is intended for
my good ; but ' the kisses of an enemy/ or one that hateth me and my
soul, ' are deceitful.' By ' kisses ' are meant the pretences of great
love to us, as Joab kissed Amasa, and stabbed him, 2 Sam. xx. 9, 10;
and Judas kissed Christ, and betrayed him, Mat. xxvi. 48, 49. Alas !
this love is but deceitful, whilst it betrayeth your souls. That this is
true love appeareth also, because thus God dealeth himself with his
own children : Prov. iii. 12, ' For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth,
even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.' God loveth his
children dearly, but yet will not let them perish in their sins, therefore
sometimes he useth a smart discipline towards them. Satan seekethtolull
them asleep by the delights of the flesh, but God awakeneth them by
the sharp corrections and rebukes of his providence. I will but
add David's expression, which showeth what thoughts he had of a
sharp reproof wisely administered : Ps. cxli. 5, ' Let the righteous
smite me, it shall be a kindness ; and let him reprove me, it shall be
an excellent oil, which shall not break my head.' David, perceiving
what mischief those unhappy flatterers that Saul had about him had
procured to him, beggeth of God as a great blessing that he might
have such godly and faithful friends about him as would never consent
to any wrong deed of his, and would not only dissent, but dissuade him
from it, yea, reprove him, and rebuke him sharply, if need were ; which
sort of friendly smiting would be a most acceptable good turn as could
be performed to him. Surely he that truly hateth sin loveth to be
freely dealt withal, and reproved and admonished of it. It may be
the reproof is as a wound to the flesh, which is proud and impatient
of contradiction ; but it is the fruit of love unfeigned ; and when we
are in our right wits, it should be as a precious oil, which they were
wont to pour on the head, both for health, and cheering, and gladness.
Secondly, The exhortation itself, ' Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy
neighbour.' Here is (1.) The object ; (2.) The act.
1. The object, thy neighbour and brother. Here the question will
be the same that was put to Christ : Luke x. 29, ' Who is my neigh
bour ? ' Christ answereth him by a parable, and showeth him that
every one that stood in need of his charity, he is the object of thy
110 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
compassion and mercy. So in this piece of charity, by ' brother ' and
' neighbour ' is meant any other man, though he be to thee as a Jew to
a Samaritan, upon terms of the greatest separation and hostility towards
thee. So our Lord teacheth elsewhere : Mat. v. 43, 44, ' Ye have
heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate
thine enemy : but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that de-
spitefully use you, and persecute you.' Offices of love must be extended
to all, even to aliens and enemies; therefore for this case am I to
reprove an infidel or one of a false religion ?
We answer briefly, as the apostle, Gal. vi. 10, ' As we have therefore
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially to .them who are
of the household of faith.'
[1.] By the law of charity I owe this office of love to all, for I should
bring home as many to God as possibly I can. Neither age, nor sex,
nor any condition of life doth deprive them of the benefit, nor exempt
me from my duty to them. Unbelievers are our neighbours, and to be
loved with a true love ; besides <^AaSeX<ia, ' Love of the brethren,'
a^aTrr), ' love ' is required of Christians : 2 Peter i. 7, ' Add to brotherly-
kindness charity.' And therefore they must not be excluded from the
common act and office of charity that belongeth to all men as men.
Spiritual alms is no more restrained than bodily. Now upon occasion
we are bound to relieve the worst in their great necessity, and none
have such great necessity of being reduced as infidels, for they are
further from God and more gone astray than others, and therefore most
need information and warning of the danger they are in. An unbeliever
may reprove a believer ; so on the contrary : Gen. xx. 16, ' And
Abimelech said unto Sarah, Behold, I have given to thy brother a
thousand pieces of silver ; behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes
to all that are with thee, and with all other : thus was she reproved.'
This heathen king reproved her, because she wore not a veil, as wives
are wont to do, but dissembled, and thereby she was in danger of being
ensnared, and giving occasion of these mischiefs ; as if he should say,
Acknowledge freely hereafter that he is thy husband, and cover thy
face in token that thou art a married woman, and that consequently he
is the shield and defence of thy chastity ; let it be a lesson and warn
ing to thee to be more circumspect hereafter.
[2.] This is chiefly *to be done to Christians, and those who are
members of the same church, for in a chief respect they are to be
reckoned brother and neighbour. They have a nearer brotherly con
junction with us than others, and the precept of brotherly correction
introduceth that discipline which is to be used in the church for ever :
Mat. xviii. 15-17, ' Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee,
go and tell him his fault between him and thee alone : if he shall hear
thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then
take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three
witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to
hear them, tell it to the church ; but if he neglect to hear the church,
let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican ; ' that is, thy
fellow Christian, he is first to be admonished privately, without putting
him to any shame or reproach, and if he mend upon such admonition,
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. Ill
there is an end. It is comfort enough to you to be an happy instru
ment of his repentance. But if that first method succeed not, other
courses must be taken ; and the case is to be brought before the
Christian church, ver. 17, that it receive no damage by wilful and
obstinate offenders ; so that reproof doth mostly concern the scandalous
sins of a brother or professed believer.
[3.] Among Christians, some are more nearly related to us, either by
the bonds of natural kindred or special friendship, as those of our
family, and with whom we have familiar converse. We know not the
estate of those who are at a distance, but those within the sphere of
our commerce we are more particularly concerned in ; as the apostle
says as to corporal relief: 1 Tim. v. 8, ' If any provide not for his own,
arid especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and
is worse than an infidel.' They act quite contrary to the laws of Christ.
So here, they that are of the same family, we are bound in a special
manner to seek their good and welfare, because, besides the common
bond of Christian charity, there is a special tie of kindred and relation,
and also because this nearness and relation giveth an opportunity of
frequent commerce, and opportunity is one of the talents which we are
to account for.
2. The act is rebuking or reproving him for sin, which must be
done faithfully, compassionately, and prudently.
[1.] Faithfully ; for in the Hebrew it is ' in rebuking thou shalt
rebuke ; ' that is, freely, plainly, soundly reprove him ; for doubling of
the words in the Hebrew increaseth the sense. We render it, ' Thou
shalt in any wise rebuke.' We must sometimes, 6\e<y%eiv aTrorp/zeo?.
So Titus i. 13, ' Kebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the
faith.' But the end and circumstances must govern the matter, for
corrosives are not proper to all wounds and diseases, and a proud
censure is not a charitable reproof. Therefore in the general it must
be so as it may best obtain its effect.
[2.] With lenity and Christian meekness, that it may appear an act
of love ; not the fruit of passion, but compassion : Gal. vi. 1, ' If a man
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in
the spirit of meekness.' When we would reclaim and restore such as
are surprised with any sin, we must do it in such a manner that they
may see our love to them, and that we have a right aim, which is not
the reproach and disgrace of the person, but his reformation and amend
ment. Our indignation against the sin must not transport us, or carry
us besides our pity to the person ; and there must not appear in it the
rigour and severity of censure which proceedeth of pride, but the lenity
of love, considering the circumstance of human frailty, and our own
proneness to offend if we were in like circumstances. It is our brother's
amendment we look after, not to beget in others an ill opinion of him,
or a good opinion of ourselves, as if we were singular in holiness and
hatred of sin above others ; and we must by all means show that our
reproving proceedeth from a zeal for the glory of God, and love to and
care of the salvation of our neighbour.
^ [3.] Prudently. All circumstances must be well weighed, of person,
time, and place, occasion, and the temptations to the offence, that all
things may be done conveniently, and proportionable to the end : Prov.
112 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
xxv. 12, ' As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is
a wise reprover upon an obedient ear ; ' that is, wise reproof is a precious
jewel, that is not so great an ornament to the ear as a wise seasonable
reproof is acceptable to a gracious heart. Eeproof is an ear-jewel ; now
an ear-jewel must not be too weighty and heavy, lest it tear and rend,
rather than adorn the ear.
Thirdly, The argument by which this duty is enforced, ' Lest thou
bear sin for him ; ' that is the marginal reading ; in the text, ' Thou
shalt not suffer sin upon him;' either reading affordeth a strong
argument.
1. ' Thou shalt not suffer sin upon him;' that is, not leave him in
his sin unreproved. Sin should be so odious to a gracious heart, that,
as we should be careful not to commit it ourselves, so we should not
permit it to lie upon others. As we would shake off a spark of fire
from their clothes, so we must not suffer any sinful blemish to remain
upon their consciences and conversations. God would every way hedge
us within our duty ; as by mourning for the sins of others he teacheth
us penitence for our own, so by reproving others' sins he teacheth us
caution for ourselves : Kom. ii. 1, ' Thou art inexcusable, man, who
soever thou art that judgest ; for wherein thou judgest another, thou
condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.'
They that live and go on in these sins, in judging others they condemn
themselves.
2. The other reading also offereth a good argument, ' That thou
bear not sin for him.' To bear sin is to bear punishment ; as Christ is
said to ' bear our sins in his body upon the tree/ when he endured the
punishment due to our sins, 1 Peter ii. 24. So he that reproveth not
sin is said to bear sin for his brother or neighbour, that is, punishment
for his sake, because he seeketh not to save a soul from death ; as the
Lord threateneth, Ezek. iii. 18, ' When I say unto the wicked, Thou
shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn
the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man
shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hands.'
Others are to answer for it, who have ability and opportunity to reprove.
Now we have sins enough of our own, that we need not take on us a
new guilt, and be partakers of other men's sins, or bear more for their
sakes.
From the whole observe
Doct. That brotherly reproof is a necessary duty, which all are
bound to practise as well as they can.
I. Let us consider the kind of the duty which we are bound to
enforce. Keproof and admonition is either authoritative and by way
of office, or charitative and by way of general duty.
1. For reproof by way of office we have many scriptures : 2 Tim.
iv. 2, ' Preach the word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine;' that is, urge
them, press them, call upon them when they are at leisure to hear,
and come together for that purpose ; or when thou hast any oppor
tunity to fasten anything upon them at other times. Labour still to
convince the evil-doers of their wicked courses. This is the continual
duty of ministers, and they must mind it evKaipw, aicdipax;, 'in
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 113
season, out of season ; both when they have probable opportunities, and
when they take occasion, though they find it not ; when the hearers, it
may be, think it not so seasonable : the recovery of souls must not be
delayed.
2. Reproof by way of general duty, which lieth upon all men that
are capable, and have the use of reason. Of this the apostle speaketh,
1 Thes. v. 14, ' Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are
unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient
towards all men.' All these are duties of Christian charity, which
belong to private believers : vovderelre TOU<? aTaicrovs, ' Warn them that
are unruly.' Reproof is one of these duties : 2 Thes. iii. 15, ' Count
him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother,' vovOeTetre;
set his duty in his mind. Again, all Christians must contribute their
help to preserve the church of Christ from scandal and prejudice ; and
therefore, when they see any man forsake his station and his work, they
must admonish him of his fault, and never leave till they have reduced
him into his proper posture and place again. Now there is a difference
between these two duties ; for the one is not only an act of charity, but
justice ; the other is an act of charity, and that general duty that we owe
to a neighbour as a neighbour. The one is done by a superior, by virtue of
his office ; the other is done by an equal towards his equal, or by a
superior by virtue of his common relation. The one is done publicly
by right dividing the word of truth, and giving every one his portion ;
the other is done privately between us and our brother, that w r e may
gain him according to Christ's rule. The one is done by public decla
ration, and the evidence of truth in their consciences, disapproving their
evil deeds : John iii. 20, ' Every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh he to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' The
other is done by closer application, or personal charge for the sins that
we have heard and seen : Gal. ii. 11, * When Peter was come to Antioch,
I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.' The one
requireth aptness of gifts, the other only Christian prudence and a
fervent charity. This latter we have now in hand.
II. The arguments by which we are to enforce it ; which are needful
in this case, because men are so apt to bear with sin, both in themselves
and others; and this duty is of so great use, that Satan seeketh to
hinder it with all his power ; and so hard to be done rightly, that most
men quite omit it.
1. I shall prove it from the law of nature, which teacheth me to love
my neighbour as myself; and therefore conscience bindeth me to reduce
those into the right way who are gone out of it ; this is the obliging
internal cause. We ourselves by a regular will, having erred, would
be glad to be reduced, and set into the right way again : Jer. viii. 4,
' Thus saith the Lord, Shall they fall, and not arise ? shall they turn
away, and not return ? ' Is any man so absurd, heedless, and witless,
that when he hath gotten a fall, will lie still, and not essay to get up
again ? or that hath been unwittingly out of the way, and will not
desire to come into it again, and be willing to receive direction from
those that would set him right ? Now this being a dictate of nature,
produced by God himself by his prophet, to aggravate their apostasy,
who having fallen by their sin, refused to rise and return, holdeth good
VOL. xix. H
114 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
also to others, whom we are to love as ourselves. And therefore, when
they are fallen, we must help them to rise again ; and when they are
turned away, we must help them to return. This is so natural, that the
very birds and beasts desire to return to their proper places in their
natural and appointed time when they have wandered ; as the prophet
speaketh of the stork, turtle, and crane : ver. 7, ' Yea, the stork in the
heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle, and the crane,
and the swallow, observe the time of their coming.' Now, from that
reciprocal obligation that is between men and the law of nature, we am
bound to reprove our brother ; as we desire it, and expect it from them^
to be set right when we are wrong, we are to pay the same debt of love
to them again. The argument holdeth. a fortiori, because in spiritual
things the danger is greater, the good to be procured is greater, the evil
to be feared greater. Yea, this argument is the stronger, because it
holdeth good concerning the ox and ass ; not only of our own neigh
bour, but of our enemy ; as Exod. xxiii. 4, ' If thoumeet thine enemy's
ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again ; '
and Deut. xxii. 1, ' Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox, or his sheep, go
astray, and hide thyself from them ; thou shalt in any case bring them
again to thy brother.' Surely hereby God would teach every man not
to look on his own things only, but to love and do good to other men.
This duty required towards beasts is much more towards men : Ezek.
xxxiv. 4, ' Ye have not brought again that which was driven away, and
ye have not sought that which was lost.' We are all like sheep going
astray, and have need of one another's help. Mark, there are two
precepts in Deut. xxii. 1 a prohibition, not to hide, and a command
ment, to restore ; so that they are doubly guilty that are not affected
with other men's sins, or do not seek to reform them.
2. It is a duty because positively commanded by God; so that unless we
will be guilty of flat disobedience, we ought to mind it. God bindeth all
men to reprove their erring brother and neighbour, keeping the rules
of prudence, justice, and charity. Now that God hath commanded this,
many of the scriptures cited before prove : Mat. xviii. 15, 'If thy brother
offend thee, go and tell him his fault between him and thee ; ' which
is to be understood not only of offences done to us, but to be extended
to all wilful crimes of which we see him guilty ; for zeal for God should
prevail with us as much as injuries done to ourselves ; and it is not
angry reproach, but Christian admonition that we press you to : 1 Thes.
v. 14, ' Warn them that are unruly ; ' 2 Thes. iii. 15, ' Admonish him
as a brother.' So Eom. xv. 14, ' I myself also am persuaded of you,
my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knoAvledge,
able to admonish one another.' So Prov. xxv. 8-10, ' Go not forth
hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when
thy neighbour hath put thee to shame. Debate thy cause with thy
neighbour himself, and discover not a secret to another, lest he that
heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away.' All
these expressions concern brotherly reproof, debating matters in case of
offence and injury real or supposed. If we presently run to law, with
out using previous gentle methods of taking up matters among ourselves,
we run a great hazard, both of loss and infamy. Better end it by
friendly composition than running to the judge, where, by many un-
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 115
happy representations, a righteous cause may be oppressed. But for
the common duty of Christians, see Eph. v. 11, ' Have no fellowship
with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.' The
word paXkov ' rather,' doth not lessen our duty, but enforce it. 'E\eyx e w
8ei, saith Chrysostom, we ought to reprove. We shall not be excused
before God unless we do our duty. So Jude 22, 23, ' And of some
have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire.'
SEKMON II.
Thou slialt not hate thy brother in thy heart ; thou shalt in any wise
rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him LEV. xix. 17.
THIRDLY, Consider how far it bindeth.
[1.] Intensively, as to the value of the precept. It is not an arbitrary
direction, which we may omit or observe at pleasure, but a necessary
precept, which we must obey.
(1.) From the danger we incur. We are under danger of sin, and
bearing punishment for them whom we reprove not ; and the punish
ment of sin is eternal death, if it be omitted out of a culpable negligence.
Eternal life and eternal death is in the case ; there is no doubt of
superiors, who by justice and office are bound to reprove, as well as by
the law of common love and charity : Ezek. xxxiii. 6, ' His blood will
I require at the watchman's hands.' But even private persons may
bear sin for others.
(2.) Because of the good which cometh thereby, which is the glory
of God and the gaining of our brother : Mat. xviii. 15, ' Thou hast
gained thy brother.' And the gaining of another's soul is no small
advantage ; this will be your crown and rejoicing in the day of the
Lord. To enforce both, consider that text, Prov. xxiv. 11, 12, ' If thou
forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are
ready to be slain : if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not ; doth not he
that pondereth the heart consider it ? and he that keepeth thy soul,
doth not he know it ? and shall not he render to every man according
to his works ? ' Here is a work of charity, delivering the innocent
from temporal death. The sin is a sin of omission ; every man is
bound to do what he can to save his neighbour from imminent de
struction. It is our duty not to be silent and see him perish ; with a
safe conscience we cannot do so ; it is against the light of nature and
all honesty to use tergiversation in this case, when we have probability
to help it ; and will not this hold good in the case of brotherly reproof,
when thou seest thy neighbour likely to perish, and be undone for
ever ? The same charity that bindeth us to deliver him from temporal
death will much more bind us to deliver him from eternal death : Heb.
iii. 12, 13, ' Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living God.' Not only in you your-
116 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
selves, but ' in any of you/ as will be clear in the remedy prescribed :
' But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day ; lest any
of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' This is a work
of Christian charity, which we owe to one another as Christian
brethren. But see how God answereth the excuse, ' If thou sayest,
Behold we knew it not.' They knew not the danger or innocency
of the person. Can you answer so to God? 'Doth not he that pon-
dereth the heart consider ? ' &c. He will be judge whether you love
your brother, yea or no ? whether this pretence be cowardice or mere
ignorance ?
[2.] How far the obligation reacheth extensively. It bindeth all ; for
all are to be able : Col. iii. 16, ' Let the word of God dwell in you
richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another ; ' and
Eom. xv. 14, ' I am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full
of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one
another.' There are several relations between Christians, but all are
bound to reprove. Some are superiors, some are inferiors ; superiors
are bound in point of justice ; inferiors in point of charity. Superiors
that have charge of souls are much more bound to reprove than others ;
God's threatenings against them are more grievous if they neglect this
duty of love. The watchman must not spare. Yea, they are bound
though it be with the danger of their lives ; as Mat. x. 16, 'Behold, I
send you fortli as sheep in the midst of wolves/ John the Baptist
reproved Herod, though it cost him his life, Mark vi. 27. And the
reason is, they have a double tie and bond upon them, as their office
and relation, besides the common bond of charity.
But now whether inferiors are bound to reprove those that are over
them?
Yes, certainly ; for David, a king, did receive with meekness a
reproof not only from Nathan, a prophet, but from Abigail, a woman,
1 Sam. xxv. 32, 33 ; and Job produceth it as a proof of his integrity
that he despised not the cause of his man-servant, or of his maid
servant, when they contended with him, Job xxxi. 13. Certainly we
owe this duty to superiors, as their danger is greater. To save a
private person is not so much as to do good to one that shineth in a
higher sphere. Well, then, we are bound to reprove all whom we are
bound to love, whether superiors or inferiors. But then to superiors
we are to use great modesty : 1 Tim. v. 1, ' Rebuke not an elder, but
entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren.' It should
be rather an exhortation and entreaty than a reproof. So princes and
magistrates, who are subject to errors and miscarriages, may with
humility and wisdom be admonished ; as Naaman's servant : 2 Kings
v. 13, ' My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldst thou not have done it ? how much rather then, when he saith,
Wash and be clean ? ' Dan. iv. 27, ' Wherefore king, let my counsel
be acceptable to thee ; ' and Col. iv. 17, ' Say to Archippus, Take
heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou
fulfil it/
But yet this is still a generality. If every one be bound to reprove
all, and all every one, when shall we know that this duty is to be put
in act ?
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 117
Ans. The admonisbcr should have a calling to it through some rela
tion between him and the offender. So we may find it in all kind of
relations ; a minister or prophet, as Nathan reproved David, 2 Sam.
xii. 1 ; as a counsellor, Joab reproveth him : 2 Sam. xix. 5, 6, ' Thou
hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which have saved
thy life ; ' a yoke-fellow, as the husband the wife : Job ii. 10, c Thou
speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.' The wife the
husband, as Abigail to Nabal : 1 Sam. xxv. 37, ' And it came to pass
in the morning, when the wine was gone out of his head, and his wife
had told him these things, his heart died within him, and he became
as a stone.' A son, as Jonathan to Saul: 1 Sam. xix. 4, 'And
Jonathan spake good of David to Saul his father, and said unto him,
Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he
hath not sinned against thee ; ' a servant admonisheth a prince,
2 Kings v. 13; a subject, so Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 27 ;
a friend to his friend : Prov. xxvii. 6, ' Faithful are the wounds of a
friend.' Yea, a stranger travelling by the way, and seeing his fellow-
traveller sin, or sitting at the same table, it is a call, because he is then
in his company, and there is the sin committed ; for so Christ proveth
the Samaritan was a neighbour to the Jew, when he lighted upon him,
Luke x. 29. So that the duty, though it universally obligeth, yet it
is not impracticable ; there is something giveth us the occasion.
4. It is recommended. When, besides the precept, there is a com
mendation, it showeth the value of a duty. Now God not only com-
mandeth, but commendeth to us both the giving and taking a reproof,
and that upon the highest and most pressing motives.
[1.] Let us see how the giving a reproof is recommended to us as
a means to increase knowledge : Prov. xix. 25, ' Keprove one that
hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge ; ' that is,
profit in the fear of the Lord. Yea, as a means to convey life : Prov.
vi. 23, ' And reproofs of instruction are the way of life.' They are a
means to reduce men to God and eternal happiness ; and it is called
saving a soul from death : James v. 19, 20, ' Brethren, if any of you
do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he that
converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.' So Prov. xxiv. 25, ' But
to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall
come upon him ; ' that is, all will pray for him, whereas they curse
and detest flatterers. Many such promises there are.
[2.] Taking a reproof is commended : Eccles. vii. 5, ' It is better to
hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools.'
It saddens the heart for the present, yet it is more wholesome and
beneficial than vain mirth, that puts us off from seriousness in soul-
dangers, and feedeth our lusts and corruptions. So Prov. xiii. 18,
' Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but he
that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.' A headstrong wicked man
bringeth himself to beggary and shame, but he that taketh counsel
betimes soon wipeth off the stain of his miscarriages. So see two
proverbs together : Prov. xv. 31, 32, ' The ear that heareth the reproof
of life abideth among the wise : he that refuseth instruction despiseth
his own soul ; but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.'
118 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
The one is a slight careless person, that despiseth God and his salva
tion ; but the other giveth a token of a wise and tractable disposition.
So Prov. xvii. 10, ' A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an
hundred stripes into a fool.' Correption doth more good than correc
tion. Now when God doth argue and persuade, and not only interpose
his authority, surely this is a duty of importance, which we should
make conscience of.
5. If God hath given directions about it, it is unquestionably a duty
belonging to us ; for directions suppose the duty, and show that God
would not have it miscarry in our hands. As when God directeth to
pray, he supposeth prayer ; when God directeth to hear, he supposeth
hearing ; so when he directeth to reprove, he supposeth reproof to be
a duty. Now the word of God doth everywhere abound with these
directions : as with what lenity and meekness we should reprove : 2 Cor.
ii. 4, ' For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you
with many tears ; not that you should be grieved, but that you may
know the love which I have more abundantly unto you;' Gal. vi, 1,
' Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest
thou also be tempted.' What difference we should make of faults.
Gnats and camels : Mat. xxiii. 24, ' Ye blind guides, which strain at
a gnat, and swallow a camel.' Of persons : Jude 22, 23, ' And of
some have compassion, making a difference ; others save with fear,
pulling them out of the fire.'
6. The duty is necessary to prevent a sin, such as detraction, cen
sure, and backbiting. It is the usual fashion of the world to change a
duty into a sin ; it should be the care of God's people to change a
sin into a duty : Eph. v. 4, ' Not foolish talking or jesting, which are
not convenient, but rather giving of thanks/ So do not speak of them
that sin, but to them ; do not judge, but reprove.
7. That without which no society can be maintained, no relation
faithfully improved, certainly is an unquestionable duty; but so is
reproof. No society can be maintained, for faults will arise, the injured
will vent themselves in passion or reproof ; now which conduceth to
the welfare of human society ? And for relations, how can I be faithful
to God in them unless I take advantage of this nearness and frequency
of converse for spiritual use ? Even good men will miscarry : if we be
privy to it, must we hold our peace ? Well, then, observe the reason
ableness of God's ordinance.
III. What is reproof ? It is an act of charity or mercy, by which
we seek by fit discourse to draw our brother from sin to his duty.
1. It is an act of charity and mercy, not of pride and vainglory :
James iii. 1, ' My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall
receive the greater condemnation.' No ; it is not an act of mastery or
rash judging, but of mercy towards our brother in his spiritual misery,
as he hath rendered himself obnoxious to God's wrath.
2. The means it useth is fit discourse, not correction and chasten
ing, but correption or rebuke. It must be dispensed in most wholesome
ways, such as may be most fit to gain a sinner and heal his soul. To
some we must use more tenderness, but more sharpness to others. In
general, we reprove from God's word : Col. iii. 16, ' Let the word of
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 119
Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another ; ' that the offender may see God reproving him rather
than man ; as Christ reproved the pharisees with mere words of
scripture : Mat. xv. 7-9, ' Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of
you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouths, and
honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me : but in
vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men.' The reproof must be insinuated as the matter requireth, either
by exhortation, admonition, or caution.
3. The end, not to shame him, but to gain him from sin to his duty.
If the man be good, to set him in joint again : Gal. vi. 1, ' Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such
an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted.' If carnal, to take this occasion to turn hjm from sin to
holiness, or to save his soul from death : James v. 19, 20, ' Brethren,
if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know
that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.'
IV. Let us see when this duty bindeth or bindeth not ; for it being
an affirmative precept, it doth not bind at all times, but as circumstan
tiated. Affirmative precepts, non ligant ad semper, do not always bind,
as negative precepts do, for evil actions are never lawful. Affirmative
precepts bind only when time and place and other circumstances con
cur ; and then the omission is faulty.
The question then is, at what times and in what circumstances this
duty bindeth ?
1. It bindeth not if I do riot certainly or probably know the sin of
my neighbour ; for reproof by way of charge must be upon an apparent
crime ; as Gal. ii. 11, ' But when Peter was come to Antioch, I with
stood him to the face, because he was to be blamed ; ' 1 Cor. v. 1, * It
is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such
fornication as is not so much as named among the gentiles ; that one
should have his father's wife , ' 1 Cor. i. 11, ' For it hath been declared
unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions among you.' Mark the grounds ; he goeth
upon certain knowledge, public fame, and valuable testimony : ' It is
-commonly reported,' and ' it is declared by the house of Chloe/ Faults
that we reprove must be certainly known and evident ; we may not
reprove upon bare suspicion, for ' charity thinketh no evil,' 1 Cor. xiii.
5 ; nor upon an uncertain hearsay : Isa. xi. 3, ' Neither reprove after
the hearing of his ears ; ' not upon flying report, or forged stories, or
the censures of any.
But here we must distinguish between the reproof of a public and
private person and a bosom friend.
[1.] Mere private persons are not bound to use inquisition them
selves, nor are they to be too suspicious, and credulously give ear to
slanders. If private persons were bound to search and find out faults
that they may reprove them, the obligation were intolerable, the number
of sinners being so innumerable as they are, and a man could hardly
-avoid the imputation of a busybody and whisperer. Therefore it is a
good rule of Austin, Do not seek out what thou mayest reprove, but
120 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
seek to mend what thou dost reprove. Therefore private men are not
bound to search and find out faults. The knowledge of another's sin
is not scientia juris, which all are bound to have, but scientia facti,
which none are bound to but those to whom the particular care of
others' souls doth belong by office ; for par in pares non habet imperium
equals have no power over one another. The fault must be known
either by certain knowledge or common fame, when you see your brother
sinning.
[2.] A superior and bosom friend may go upon suspicion, but then
his reproof must be rather by way of caution than charge, and by virtue
of special friendship, that as no guilt, so no blame may rest upon his
friend. A superior is to search out the matter.
2. Not if he hath repented already ; for to upbraid men with past
sins is to rake in the filth which God hath covered. The elder brother
said, Luke xv. 30, ' As soon as this thy son is come, which hath
devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted
calf.' There is a difference between the correction of a superior and
the reproof of a neighbour. The correction of a magistrate respects
the common good or the example of others ; and therefore, whether the
man repent or no, he may be corrected and punished for his faults, and
he must patiently endure the punishment ; but brotherly reproof respects
the private good of the party admonished or reproved, to remove the
fault, not to inflict punishment ; the end is obtained if thou hast gained
thy brother.
But yet here is an exception ; if we have good cause to suspect his
repentance is not thorough and sincere, or if he be in danger of a relapse
into the sin again.
3. If it be evident he shall do no good by his reproof; for all means-
are required in order to the end. Therefore when there is no appear
ance of doing good at all, or that our reproof will be profitable or attain
its proper end, we are not bound in such a case. Ministerial reproof
must be given though there be no hope : Ezek. ii. 5, ' And they,
whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, for they are a
rebellious house, yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among
them/ The waters of the sanctuary must flow, whether men drink of
them or no. But in private reproof we are bound while there is hope,
and while they are not incorrigible. Yet there is this exception ;
every attempt must not discourage us, nor every reproach and scorn
make us give over the cause as remediless ; but we must reprove, and
reprove again, as long as we have any hopes of reducing them into the
right way: 2 Peter i. 13, 'Wherefore I will not be negligent,' saith
the apostle Peter, ' to put you always in remembrance of these things/
Let us do our duty, and trust God with the event. Those that for the
present do storm and rage may afterwards come to themselves again,
especially if God stirreth us up by the secret motions of his Spirit to-
continue our endeavours: Acts xvii. 16, Paul's ' spirit was stirred in him,,
when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.' Impulse of spirit doth
determine circumstances of known duty though it doth not constitute
new duties.
4. When the party is likely to be the worse, rather than better, if he
be reproved : Prov. ix. 7, ' He that reproveth a scorner getteth to him-
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 121
self shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a
blot,' if it provoketh them to rail. So Mat. vii. 6, ' Give not holy
things to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they
trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.' Some are
so wedded to their sins, that God's providence calleth upon us to let
them alone. No good statue can be made of crooked or knotty timber ;
a vicious stomach turneth all things into choler ; rain maketh a spongy
marsh ground the worse ; blowing increaseth the fire ; a dunghill
stinketh the worse the more it is stirred. Some are contemptuous and
scornful ; their corruptions are irritated by seeking to restrain them.
Therefore if he sinneth the more grievously, that is a worse inconveniency
than the reproof can bring good. Yet we must take heed that we do riot
censure people to be such without a cause ; the reasons for our omission
of such a necessary duty must be clear and sure, such as we can urge
and avouch before God himself. We must not put by the duty upon
slight conjectures, but still remember that God seeth and will consider
it. It is very notable that cautions against rash judging are giver*
before the direction of not casting pearls before swine and dogs : Mat.
vii. 1, ' Judge not, that ye be not judged.'
5. When it will be rationally presumed that he will amend without
our reproof. As alms ought not to be given to one that is indeed in
poverty, when we know there are those that will plentifully relieve him,
so in the case of reproof, when neither by ourselves, nor by the help of
any other, a man is likely to be awakened, then we are bound to re
prove him, or procure another that may do it more successfully ; for
some are capable to manage it with more wisdom than ourselves. I
confess this must be taken cautiously. A general presumption that
another will do his office doth not absolve us in foro conscientice, be
cause this duty ariseth not from any voluntary contract or paction
between men and men, but from the law of God, our supreme governor
and judge, binding every one ; and therefore we must do our own duty,
and not think to be discharged by the zeal and diligence of others.
And besides, a presumption that others will do it may cause it wholly
to fall to the ground ; as, Luke x. 33, the good Samaritan had not been
absolved from uncharitableness if he had presumed that the priest and
Levite would relieve the distressed man, or, if not they, that some other
of his countrymen that came that way, and were nearer to him by
nation and blood, and more charitable than the former, that they
would relieve him ; but he neither minded the one nor the other, but
performed his duty ; he saw a miserable spectacle, one wounded with
thieves, 'and he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast,
and brought him to an inn, and took care of him,' ver. 33, 34. So here.
The papists indeed make this limitation, Nisi probabiliter prcesumatur
aliunde nacturum, qui eum corripiat Except he probably presume
that another will reprove him ; but this presumption must be evident
and rational, not probable only ; and where I am privy to it, and know
it, and procure it, and know how much better he is able to manage it
than myself, then I am not to take it out of his hands, or when others
are present whose gifts and office more oblige them to it.
6. When he doth expect a better opportunity, his omission is not
122 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
faulty for the present ; for all things must Le gone about in their
season : Eccles. iii. 7, ' There is a time to keep silence, and a time to
speak ; ' and in another place, because ' to every man there is time and
judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him,' Eccles. viii.
6-8. He speaketh of the misery men contract upon themselves by
disproving public disorders, especially in great persons, princes, and
potentates. Therefore certainly it concerneth us to take a fit season ;
not when a man is drunk ; as Abigail told Nabal not a word when
the wine was in his head, 1 Sam. xxv. 36, 37 ; not when they are in
the heat of passion, for then they are not capable of discerning right
and reason : James i. 20, ' For the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God ; ' therefore opportunity and conveniency of cir
cumstances must be considered and improved. Yet here is caution
still ; we must not adjourn it too far. Life is short, and sin groweth :
Heb. iii. 13, 'Exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest
any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin/ And it must
be done at length ; if we have long waited for a season, and cannot find
it, we must make it, and break a rule of civil prudence rather than
violate conscience ; for civilities must not prescribe to religion.
7. If it be uncertain whether that which you reprove for be a sin, as
suppose some kind of games or sports, which are questionable, because
usually they do hurt, engross time, and enchant the mind, and are as
the excelsa mundi, the high places of the world, that have a strange
blast and judgment of God upon them, though we cannot say that for
the nature of them they are utterly unlawful. What shall we do in
this case ? Many weak people are importunate to have others reproved
for these things ; but if once .we give way to this, it looketh like an itch
of reproving ; and if we reprove for doubtful matters, men fly from our
reproof for what is clear and open. Yet we may hold an argument,
and prudently debate things, and discourse about them ; but take heed
you do not hinder yourselves in matters that are of more weighty
importance.
8. When greater loss and damage may come to ourselves by the
reproof than benefit to the reproved. It is out of question that he that
can easily discharge this duty without any considerable inconveniency,
and only forbears it out of sloth and pusillanimity, hath the greater sin
if he doth it not ; for he standeth with God for a trifle. But now if a
considerable damage shall redound to myself in discharging this duty,
it is of weight in this matter. Our Lord saith, Mat. vii. 6, ' Give not
that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.'
As suppose there be a danger of your life, having to do with a con
temptuous sinner ; if I carry my life in my hand, and put it to hazard,
there must be many things considered in this case. But now in
extreme cases, if our neighbour be in present danger of losing his soul,
with the danger of my bodily life I am to do what I can to save his
soul. The work is good ; the danger, depending upon a future event,
is not absolutely certain ; God can preserve me. However, it is a part
of much self-denial to venture all in God's liana's.
9. Public reproof is sometimes, not always necessary. If the sin be
public, either as committed in sight before all : 1 Tim. v. 20, ' Them
SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17. 123
that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear ; ' or as judged by
a public judicatory; or if an hidden sin tends to the damage of the com
munity ; or a greater hurt follow upon it than the loss of my neighbour's
fame ; or if the person have lost all right to fame, or to a good name (as
some have forfeited it), I need not stand nicely upon their good name,
but in such cases I am to reprove publicly. In other cases the reproof
must be private ; and the rule is, Mat. xviii. 15, ' Go and tell him his
fault between thee and him alone.'
Use 1. If we are to reprove others, let us take care that we be
innocent ourselves, not culpable, but blameless. They that are faulty
themselves cannot reprove others without blushing and great shame.
Pull out the beam out of thine own eye. Physician, heal thyself : Mat.
vii. 3-5, ' And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? or how wilt
thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and
behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out
the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull
out the mote out of thy brother's eye ;' Horn. ii. 21, ' Thou that sayest
a man should not steal, dost thou commit sacrilege ? ' The Jews were
tender of idolatry after they had smarted in the matter of the golden
calf, yet all the latter prophets condemn them for sacrilege and robbing
God of his due. If we are faulty ourselves, either in the same kind
or worse, we spoil our reproof : Ps. cxli. 5, ' Let the righteous smite
me, it shall be a kindness ; and let him reprove me, it shall be an
excellent oil/ They may admonish with the greater authority. Others
are remotely bound, they nearly ; others not without special repentance
and humility, acknowledging their own sins, and desiring they may not
be examples to harden others. A sinner is not freed from the debt of
love, but he is bound humbly to acknowledge his sin, and forsake it,
that he may be fit to reprove others.
Use 2. If others be bound to reprove, certainly you are bound to take
a reproof. Solomon brings in the wretched sinner, when his sin hath
found him out, speaking thus, Prov. v. 12, 13, ' How have I hated
instruction, and my heart despised reproof ; and have not obeyed the
voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed
me ! ' These are the lamentations of one that is ready to perish in his
sin. And Prov. x. 17, ' He is in the way of life that keepeth instruc
tion ; but he that hateth reproof, erreth/ They wander far and wide,
that hate to be brought into the right way : Prov. xii. 1, ' He that hateth
reproof is brutish.' Why ? Because he despiseth the great help of
mankind, and so is carried away with his base and impetuous desires,
and will not hear reason to the contrary : Prov. xiii. 18, ' Poverty and
shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction ; but he that regardeth
reproof shall be honoured ; ' as unwilling to go on in a wrong course
after he seemeth to be engaged in it ; and he shall be honoured as one
that is prudent : Prov. xv. 5, ' A fool despiseth his father's instruction ;
but he that regardeth reproof is prudent.' He is wise at the second
hand ; though not in his first choice, yet in rectifying his ill choice.
Nay, Prov. xv. 10, 'Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the
way ; and he that hateth reproof shall die.' Better be corrected than
die and perish for ever. God's reproofs and rebukes at the last day
124 SERMONS UPON LEVITICUS XIX. 17.
will be very severe and amazing. And ver. 31, 'The ear that hearetli
the reproof of life abideth among the wise ; ' that is, forsaketh the ill
company which misled him, and betaketh himself to better guides :
Prov. xxix. 1, ' He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' Our case without
repentance is desperate ; for when we have hardened ourselves in an
evil way, the Lord overtakes us with a sudden destruction.
Use 3. It exhorts us to set upon this duty. There is need of it ;
which will appear if we consider the infirmity of nature, that is to be
restrained, a blind mind to be enlightened, a drowsy heart to be
awakened, vehemency of passions to be curbed, and great allurements
to sin to be withstood. Say not with Cain, Gen. iv. 9, 'Am I my
brother's keeper ? ' Thou art so ; do it then with love, lest you do the
work of an enemy under the vizard of a friend. No hatred or ill end
must put you on this business ; for when you rebuke sin with sin, you
increase it. Again, there is need of it ; for it will prevent many evils,
as censuring and detraction, and speaking ill of others, and invasion of
the ministry. This is one great evil that heretofore hath reigned
among us. Many little prattlers, that had no gifts, set up for ministers.
This itch would soon be cured if men would mind necessary duties,
such as meditation (which is a preaching to themselves), family in
struction, and brotherly reproof.
Use 4. Direction to perform this duty. Many graces are necessary
hereunto, as zeal for God, love to our neighbour, and courage. Avoid
pusillanimity, that you be not hindered by your fears, this is the way
to prevail ; and if you prevail not, you must mourn and pray ; as Lot :
2 Peter ii. 8, ' For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing
and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their ungodly
deeds ; ' Jer. xiii. 17, ' But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in
secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore, and run cloven
with tears.'
SERMONS UPON 1 COEINTH1ANS XV. 19.
SERMON I.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. 1 COR. xv. 19.
IN the context the apostle is disputing for the truth of the resurrection.
This way of reasoning is deducendo ad absurdum, by showing the
absurdities that would follow upon the denial of it.
The first absurdity is mentioned, ver. 13, 'If there be no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen.' In all things he is a pattern to
his people ; if the head be risen, so shall the members also.
The second absurdity consequent upon that is mentioned, ver. 14-16,
'And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith
is also vain : yea, and we are found false witnesses of God ; because
we have testified of God that he raised up Christ ; whom he raised not
up, if so be that the dead rise not: for if the dead rise not, then is not
Christ raised.' Whole Christianity would be a forgery, and whatever
was preached by the apostles, and believed by them, vain and frivolous,
if Christ be not risen.
The third absurdity, ver. 17, { And if Christ be not risen, your faith
is vain ; you are yet in your sins/ That the new covenant, and all their
confidence about remission of sins upon repentance, would come to
nothing.
The fourth absurdity, that those that had lost their lives for Christ
Avould perish eternally, and would have nothing to recompense this
loss : ver. 18, ' Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are
perished.'
The fifth absurdity is in the text ; if all our hopes in Christ were
terminated with this life, Christians were the most wretched sort of men
in this world : ' If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of
all men most miserable.' But these are such absurd thoughts, that
every Christian should abhor them with indignation.
In the words we have
1. A supposition, ' If in this life only we have hope in Christ.'
2. An absurdity thence inferred, ' We are of all men most miserable.'
Doct. That the calamities of the godly in this life show that we have
much more to hope for from Christ in the life to come.
1. I shall state the point, in what sense it is said that Christians are
of all men most miserable if there be no life to come.
126 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
2. Confirm and prove it, by showing the validity of the apostle's
reasoning.
I. For the supposition.
1. This is supposed, that affliction and misery is the common burden
of the sons of Adam. In the present life all are liable to misery, some
more, some less. We walk through a valley of tears, live in a groan
ing world ; none have such an uninterrupted current and stream of
worldly felicity but that they have their crosses and afflictions. These
things are common to man. We are told in the book of Job, chap. v.
7, ' Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward ;' and chap. xiv. 1,
'Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble/ None
can reasonably expect to be absolutely exempted from the common lot
of human lapsed nature. Though life be short, yet it is long enough
to be vexed with many sorrows. ' Few and evil have the days of the
years of my life been/ saith old Jacob, Gen. xlvii. 9. Since they are
evil, it is well they are but few. Most men little consider of this, that
they come into the world to bear crosses, but rather imagine they come
hither to spend their days in pleasure ; at least, they do not mind the
true cause of their troubles, nor the proper remedy. The true cause
is sin ; man's transgressions are the door by which it entered ; and the
proper remedy is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Well, then, what
ever may be the particular and various dispensations of God towards
men, yet to be miserable in some sort and degree is common to all Adam's
posterity, which should make us to look higher than the present life.
2. Of all men, virtuous good men are more miserable than others,
if you consider their temper and the state of the world. Their temper ;
they deny themselves the pleasures of the flesh, and the world too often
depriveth them of the ordinary comforts of life. They deny themselves
the irregular pleasures of the flesh, as being an impediment to goodness,
and that sense and appetite may not carry them against the dictates of
reason, and so, instead of being led by conscience, as they ought, they
serve their brutish passions and inclinations, as others do. This is the
difference between them and others : ' They do not run with them into
the same excess of riot,' 1 Peter iv. 4. But besides this, they are subject
to many tribulations and persecutions. We often see that instruments
of public good are made sacrifices of public hatred. The bad will hate
the good, as differing from them, and disgracing that kind of life which
they affect : Prov. xxix. 27, ' He that is upright in the way is abomin
ation to the wicked/ They have a malignity and enmity to that good
ness which they want themselves, and therefore deal worst with those
that deserve best at their hands, because they cannot so quietly take
satisfaction in their lusts, whilst others about them excel in virtue and
holiness.
3. Of all good men, the profane carnal world is more enraged against
Christians than others. Probity and honesty in the heathens hath met
with opposition in the world ; and some among them, that would
reform a depraved and disordered age, have met with sore troubles,
and been hurried even unto death for seeking to stop the inundation
of public vices. But especially hath this been the portion of Christians :
2 Tim. iii. 12, ' All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution/ Christianity is the more violently opposed because it
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 127
carrieth us to an higher pitch of purity and holiness than bare morality
doth ; for therein men are more devoted to God, and do most resemble
him, as they are made partakers of the divine nature. Therefore a
true, constant, Christian course doth more enrage the world. Besides,
it is most contrary to those diabolical impostures which have prevailed
over the nations, and are entertained by them with much veneration,
as being received by a long tradition from ancestors. Therefore the
devil ever had a greater rage against this way ; and many of the truths
of it are not only mysteries, and therefore contradicted, but mysteries
of godliness, tending to imbue men with right thoughts of God, and
do more shake the interests of the devil's kingdom. Thence hath
it been that Christians have been worse used than other good men ;
and so, considered as to their outward estate, are of all men most
miserable.
4. To induce men to lead such an holy godly life, which exposeth
them to so many miseries, such motives are necessary as are greater
than the temptations of the world ; partly with respect to Christ, for
Christ is so good that he would not impose this duty upon us without
a sufficient recompense for our losses and troubles ; for he came not to
make us miserable, but happy, to save, not to destroy, that the world
might have benefit by him, and not loss and trouble. We have a two
fold apprehension of God, as an holy and happy being. There is in
his nature, TO ayaOov, goodness, and TO paKapiov, blessedness ; accord
ingly Christ hath made a discovery of him to us when he came to plant
godliness and holiness in the world. He hath revealed him as a God
of infinite purity and blessedness, that, by imitating him in purity, we
might be made partakers of his blessedness; or that, self-denyingly
carrying on a life of holiness here, we might have our blessedness in a
better life hereafter : his calling is an high and holy calling. And
partly with respect to us : In this state of frailty, this living godly in
Christ Jesus cannot be carried on unless our natural and sensual
inclination be overruled by the bias of a stronger affection. The flesh
in us is importunate to be pleased ; and therefore when our troubles
and trials are sore and manifold, what shall we do if we have not such
higher motives as may rationally prevail with us ? The voice of nature
is, Spare the flesh ; but the voice of faith is, Save the soul. Now if
this salvation be not greater than the temptations of the present life,
how shall we row against the stream of flesh and blood, and run all
hazards with Christ ?
5. Christ hath promised an happiness that will countervail all these
afflictions. There is a fourfold comparison which believers usually
make, or in scripture are taught to make, between this life and the
next ; as
[1.] Sometimes they compare temporal good things with eternal
good things, or the portion of a carnal man with the happiness of a
child of God : Ps. xvii. 14, 15, ' From men which are thy hand, O
Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life,
and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : they are full of
children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. But as
for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with thy likeness.' That is, the rich and great men of
128 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
the world have all their good things allowed by thee in this life ; here
they have all riches, and plenty, and a numerous posterity, wealth
sufficient not only to enjoy themselves, but to leave abundantly to their
children ; but I count myself abundantly provided for if I may have thy
favour with a painful holy life here, and when I awake out of the sleep
of death, may so see thee hereafter, as to be like thee ; I am satisfied
with the hopes of the vision and fruition of God.
[2.] Sometimes they compare temporal evil things with eternal evil
things ; as a prison with hell, or the killing of the body with the casting
the body and soul into hell-fire : Luke xii. 4, 5, ' Be not afraid of them
that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But
I will forewarn you whom you shall fear : Fear him which, after he hath
killed, hath power to cast into hell. ; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.'
Certainly it is more for our interest to fear displeasing God than dis
pleasing men ; the utmost that men can do is to kill the body, and
then their malice is at an end; but God can cast body and soul into
everlasting torments. Every one would submit to a lesser evil to avoid
a greater. When you must sin to escape trouble in the world, you
run into eternal sufferings to avoid temporal. No wrath like the wrath
of God ; no torment like the fire of hell.
[3.] Sometimes they compare temporal good with eternal evil ; as
Mat. xvi. 26, ' What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul ? ' The plentiful life of worldlings with the for
feiting of the soul ; the pleasures of sin for a season with the pains of
hell.
[4.] The fourth sort of comparison which the scripture directs us
unto is temporal bad things with eternal good things ; and that is the
case we have now in hand. Thus Horn. viii. 18, ' For I reckon that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us.' Sufferings for the present
may be very great, but the glory that is revealed to us, and shall one
day be revealed in us, is much greater ; as there is no comparison
between a little flea-biting, or the prick of a pin, with eternal ease and
rest, or the trouble of entering by a strait gate or entry into a glorious
palace : 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.' The sufferings of the present world are leves et breves, light
arid short ; not in themselves, but in comparison with eternal life. In
themselves they may be some of them very sharp and grievous, and
some also very long and tedious ; but look, what a point is to the cir
cumference, that is time to eternity, and what a feather is to a talent
of lead, that are present evils to future glory and blessedness. All this
is spoken to show that it is better to be miserable with the people of
God than happy with his enemies, and that we should not be drawn
away from Christ neither by the comfortable nor troublesome things we
meet with in the world.
6. This happiness which Christ hath proposed is at the general
resurrection, or Christ's coming to judgment; for that is the point
which the apostle is now discoursing of. There is a distinction between
the good and the bad at death, when 'the spirits of just men are made
perfect,' Heb. xii. 23, and the spirits of the wicked are sent to prison.
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 129
1 Peter iii. 19. The soul dieth not with the body, but some go one
way, some another; the souls of just men to God's palace of glory,
where they are with Christ, and the souls of the wicked to the prison
of hell. But this retribution is not sufficient, for two reasons 'because
it is private, and doth not openly vindicate the justice and holiness of
God ; and it is but on a part, the soul, and not the body.
[1.] Because it is private, and dispensed apart to every single person,
man by man as they die. Certainly it is more for the honour of God
to bring his judgment to light, as the prophet speaketh, Zeph. iii. 5,
' Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light/ Here the love
of God towards the good, and the justice of God towards the wicked,
is not brought into the clear light, nor at death ; neither the mouth of
the pit is visibly opened, nor the glory of heaven exposed to view.
But then this different respect is more conspicuous when the justice of
God hath a public and solemn triumph, and his enemies are branded
with shame and ignominy, and the faith of his elect found to praise
find honour, and the one are publicly condemned, and the other justi
fied by the judge sitting upon the throne : Acts iii. 19, ' That your sins
may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the
presence of the Lord.'
[2.] As it is upon a part, the soul only. The bodies of the holy and
the wicked are both now senseless, and moulder into dust in the grave;
and till they be raised up, and joined to their souls, can neither partake
of woe or weal, pleasure or pain. The soul, though it be a principal
part, is but a part. The body essentially concurreth to the constitution
of the man ; and it is the body that is most gratified by sin, and the
body that is most pained by obedience ; and therefore the body, which
is the soul's sister and coheir, is to share with it in its eternal estate, what
ever it be. Therefore, that we may not be in part punished, nor in part
rewarded, there is a time coming when God will deal with the whole
man, and that is in the day of Christ's solemn court and audience,
when all the world shall be summoned before his tribunal.
7. The apostle proveth this, because the righteousness of God's
government will not permit that his people should be accounted of all
men most miserable.
To clear this I shall show
First, In what sense the apostle saith, If there were no life to come,
Christians were of all men most miserable.
Secondly, How this will not consist with the righteousness of God's
government.
First, In what sense the apostle saith, If there were no life to come,
Christians were of all men most miserable. I put this first question,
that we may not mistake the apostle's meaning, when he pronounceth
Christians to be of all men most miserable if our hopes in Christ were
terminated with this life. Take him right ; and therefore,
1. Negatively.
[1.] It is not to deny all present providence or watchful care over his
oppressed people. No ; Eccles. iii. 16, 17, ' And moreover, I saw under
the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there ; and the
place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.' He meaneth not in
the mountains of prey only, but in the tribunals of justice; there was
VOL. XIX. I
130 SEIIMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
iniquity and wickedness: 'I said in my heart, God shall judge the
righteous and the wicked ; for there is a time there for every purpose,
and for every work.' So again, Eccles. v. 8, ' If thou seest the
oppression of the poor, and the violent perverting of judgment and
justice in a province, marvel not at the matter ; for he that is higher
than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they.' Both these
places show that there is a providence ; though God for a while permit
his meek and obedient servants to be oppressed, and in the eye of the
world they seem to be forgotten and forsaken and utterly left to perish,
yet in due time God will exercise a righteous judgment on them and
their enemies. The like you have, Ps. Iviii. 11, ' So that a man shall
say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous ; verily he is a God that
judgeth in the earth.' It is not meant of hereafter, but now. It is
many times found that godliness and holiness are matters of benefit and
advantage in this world, abstracted from all reward in another life.
The world is not governed by chance, but by a wise and most just pro
vidence. It may be God doth not relieve the oppressed so soon as men
would, yet in due time he will not fail to show himself the ruler of the
affairs of mankind ; so that this is not his meaning, to exclude all pre
sent providence.
[2.] Not to deny that we have such benefits by Christ here in this
world as not to make our condition more valuable than that of the
wicked. We have hopes by Christ of the pardon of sins, and that is
a blessedness : Ps. xxxii. 1, ' Blessed is he whose transgression is for
given, whose sin is covered.' Of communion with God : 1 John i. 3,
'And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ.'
And that maketh way for a full joy, and countervaileth temporal evils.
We have not only an interest in the love of God, but a feeling of it in
our souls : Rom. v. 3-5, ' And not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience expe
rience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed ; because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is
given unto us.' All things are sanctified to us as we are sanctified to
God : Eom. viii. 28, ' All things shall work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.' But
yet this is not all ; therefore the apostle saith, ' If in this life only we
had hope, we are of all men most miserable.'
[3.] The apostle's drift is not to compare wickedness and godliness,
as abstracted from the eternal reward ; as if a wicked man were more
happy than an afflicted godly man. No ; Christ's worst is better than
the world's best ; godliness and holiness is amiable, or a reward in
itself. Better be good though miserable, than bad though prosperous ;
for holiness and godliness, though abstracted from all reward in an
other life, is an excellency and perfection of human nature : Ps. xvi.
3, ' But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent,.
in whom is all my delight ; ' Prov. xii. 26, ' The righteous is more
excellent than his neighbour.' It is an honour put upon human nature
to have the image of God impressed upon it. The more good we are,
the more orderly we live, and agreeably to reason and those souls with
which we are created ; and the actions which the law of Christ calleth
for at our hands are fittest to be done by us if they were not com
manded, nor ever should be rewarded in us.
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19, 131
2. Positively ; and so
[1.] The apostle speaketh not of their inward enjoyments, but their
outward estate, which no ways seems to answer God's covenant love
nor governing justice ; for the calamities of the godly raise two doubts
(1.) How this doth stand with the love and goodness of God to his
people ? This was the psalmist's temptation : Ps. Ixxiii. 1, ' Truly
God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.' It is a
most certain and a most infallible truth that God is abundantly
gracious and kind, and not only faithful and just to all his sincere
servants ; but we are under no small temptation to doubt of the truth
of this when they are under severe scourges and chastisements, or
exercised with continual afflictions, and others live in pomp and
luxury, and all manner of secular felicity. (2.) But the other temp
tation to doubt of God's governing in righteousness was Jeremiah's
temptation : Jer. xii. 1, ' Eighteous art thou, Lord ; yet let me talk
with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked
prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacher
ously ? ' Certain it is that God is righteous ; yet when his people are
in a sad condition, and their enemies thrive and prosper by their
wicked courses, their minds are troubled ; for to appearance none are
in a worse condition than they that love God most, and serve him best,
till he be considered not as to his external but eternal estate.
[2.] The apostle's meaning is, that a man cannot rationally be
induced to submit to Christianity, and, in defiance of all temptations,
to lead an holy godly life, without the expectation of the happiness of
another world. The temptation lieth in things present, and our
strength lieth in a due reflection on things to come. Faith must guide
us, that sense may not mislead us ; and so, when the world's best and
Christ's worst are brought into competition, the soul is the better
enabled to make a right choice : Heb. xi. 26, ' Esteeming the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ; for he had
respect to the recompense of reward.' It is the hopes which Christ
offereth in a better life which strike all temptations dead. Now in
case this should not be, the apostle pronounceth Christians to be of all
men most miserable, upon a fourfold account
(1.) Because their very present comforts would seem to be but a
fantastical impression or a fanatical illusion ; for our whole religion
would be a falsehood if the great promise be chimerical, or a mere
dream and supposition : 1 John ii. 25, ' This is the promise which he
hath promised us, even eternal life.' And so how can we imagine but
that all the comfort which we take in the pardon of sins, communion
with God, and the sense of his love, are mere conceit and vain ima
gination ?
(2.) Because their future hopes and trust would be utterly dis
appointed, and they deluded in their greatest expectations : 1 Tim.
iv. 10, ' Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust
in the living God, who is the saviour of all men, especially of those
that believe.' It is our hope in God through Christ, or the assurance
of an eternal reward, which is the only ground of our suffering patiently
anything that befalleth us. He is the preserver of all mankind, but
hath promised eternally to save those that believe and obey him.
132 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
Therefore, if there were no world to come, Christians would not only
be disappointed of their great hope, which is the worst kind of vexation,
but draw a suspicion upon all these advantages that we seem to reap
by Christ and enjoy here upon earth.
(3.) Their earnest desires would not be fulfilled if there were no
blessedness to come. We may prove eternal life by the disposition
and instinct of nature towards happiness in general, yea, eternal happi
ness, which if we should not enjoy, that desire were in vain ; but God
doth nothing in vain. The apostle intimateth this universal desire in
all rational creatures ; they alt grope and feel about for an eternal and
infinite good : Acts xvii. 27, ' That they should seek the Lord, if haply
they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from
every one of us.' Other creatures besides man are satisfied with what
they have here, but the soul of man is satisfied with nothing but the
eternal enjoyment of what is good, an immortal estate, an infinite
good ; this is the universal inclination of all mankind. Whence cometh
that desire to be so universal if there be nothing to satisfy it ? Where
is this immortality that we seek after ? Not in temporal enjoyments,
riches, honours, and pleasures ; they perish, and we perish. Yea, the
lust of these things passeth away in time: 1 John ii. 17, 'The
world passeth away, and the lust thereof.' Not in surviving fame ;
that is a shadow, like the pleasure which those take who want children
in playing with little dogs and puppies. It lieth in the eternal enjoy
ment of God. But we urge not this now ; we urge the desires of the
renewed and sanctified, which do much more prove it, for these act
more regularly, and direct their desires and hopes to a certain scope
and end ; and these are excited by the Holy Spirit of God, who im-
printeth the firm persuasion of this happiness, and inclineth us to it,
and stirreth up these groans after it: Bom. viii. 23, 'And not only they,
but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we our
selves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body.' The word of God warrants these desires,
and the Spirit of God kindleth them in our hearts, and that usually in
our gravest and severest moods, when we are solemnly conversing with
God in his holy worship ; then doth he raise up these affections towards
heavenly things, as in the word, prayer, and sacraments ; then is this
relish left upon our hearts ; and the more serious and holy any are, the
more do they feel of this. And also in our bitter sufferings for God :
Kom. v. 3, ' And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing
that tribulation worketh patience ; ' 1 Peter iv. 13, 14, ' But rejoice
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory
shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory
and of God resteth upon you : on their part he is evil-spoken of, but on
your part he is glorified.' This is a greater argument than the bare
instinct and desire of nature. Certainly if our holiness be our torment,
and God beget in us these desires which he never meant to satisfy, then
we are of all men most miserable.
(4.) There would be no recompense for their greatest losses. Christ
requireth us not only to venture, but lose our lives for his sake : Luke
xiv. 26, ' If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother,
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 133
and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple/ Now if our hopes in Christ be at an
end with this life, what encouragement have we to lose our lives for
Christ's sake ? Nature will teach us to submit to a lesser evil to obtain
a greater good than that evil depriveth us of ; but what will teach us
to lose the greatest benefit we are possessed of when nothing cometh of
it ? Grace indeed teacheth us to quit this frail life for the hopes which
Christ hath given us of an immortal blessed estate ; but if that be not,
Christians are of all men most miserable, who had better have kept that
life which they had till a natural death called them from it, than to
have lost it for nothing.
Secondly, Having vindicated the apostle's meaning, I shall prove
that it is inconsistent with the righteousness of God's government that
his people should be always of all men most miserable. For a time
they may be so, but not for ever. Certainly God is righteous ; to
deny him to be just is to deny him to be God and the governor of the
world. The perfection of his nature includeth his justice ; so doth also
the eminency of his office : ' Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance ?
God forbid ; for then how shall God judge the world ? ' Horn. iii. 5, 6 ;
that is, he were then incapable of governing mankind. But when is
this righteousness manifested ? Not always in this world, especially
to those who perish in their afflictions and persecutions, which they
endure for his name's sake. No ; ' He hath appointed a day wherein
he will judge the world in righteousness/ Acts xvii. 31, and that is at
the general resurrection. God now judgeth the world in patience,
winketh or conniveth at many faults, endureth the wicked with much
long-suffering, but then he will judge the world in righteousness.'
None are punished now besides or beyond their deservings ; but all are
not punished according to their deservings, nor are the wrongs of his
people righted, nor their labour of love recompensed. Therefore we
must expect another day and time when that shall be done ; and that
is most fully and universally done in the great and general day of
judgment, when the dead shall be raised out of their graves, they that
have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil to the resurrection of damnation. And so it serves the apostle's
scope to prove a resurrection.
SERMON II.
If in this life only we, have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. 1 COR. xv. 19.
II. 1 MUST show the validity of the apostle's argument, that there must
be a life to come, because otherwise Christians would be of all men most
miserable. The apostle urgeth it here as a strong proof of the resur
rection, and elsewhere he urgeth it as a demonstration of the general
judgment ; as when he, speaking of the persecutions of the righteous,
134 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
telleth us, 2 Thes. i. 5, ' Which is a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God,' evSeiry/j,a, a plain and certain demonstration. Surely
the argument is cogent and conclusive.
But where lieth the force of it ?
1. I shall argue from the nature of God ; and there
[1.] I shall begin with his wisdom, which doeth things according to
number, weight, and measure, and doth rightly dispose things in their
proper places. This wisdom of his will not permit the disjunction of
these two things so closely united together as sin and punishment,
holiness and happiness. This cannot be but there will be an appear
ance of deformity and irregularity. If there be such a thing as good
and evil, bonum et malum morale, as reason will tell us there is ; again,
if there be such a thing as pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, or bonum
et malum naturale, as sense will tell us there is; then it is very
agreeable to the wisdom of God that these things should be rightly
placed and sorted. That moral evil, which is sin, should be punished
with natural evil, which is pain and misery ; and that moral good,
which is holiness, should end in joy and happiness ; these seem to be
such natural relatives, that without great incongruity they cannot be
parted. It seemeth uncomely and an uncouth thing to us when it is
otherwise : Prov. xxvi. 1, ' As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest,
so honour is not seemly for a fool ; ' that is, as snow and rain in
harvest and summer come unseasonable and unwelcome, andbreed a kind
of displeasure in our minds, so we look upon it as a blemish or an un
couth thing when the wicked are exalted. We have compassion on a
miserable man, whom we esteem not deserving his misery, but are
moved with indignation against one that is happy and successful, but
unworthy the happiness he enjoyeth. This is the general sense of
mankind, which is a proof and plain document that we perceive an ex
cellent harmony, and natural order between these two things, sin and
misery, holiness and happiness ; and this sentiment is some stricture
and shadow of the perfection of God's wisdom ; and therefore, though
for a time, while both good and bad are upon their trial, the good are
not regarded, nor the bad punished, yet the wisdom of God will not
permit it to be always so, that the godly should be in an afflicted and
distressed condition, and the wicked prosperous.
[2.] Come we to the holiness of God, which inclineth him to hate
evil and love that which is good. Surely God is not indifferent to good
and evil, or more partial to the evil than to the good. That were a
blasphemy, and such a diminution of God's holiness as should be ab
horred by every good Christian. No ; ' He hateth all the workers of
iniquity,' Ps. v. 5 ; and again, Ps. xi. 7, ' The righteous Lord loveth
righteousness ; his countenance doth behold the upright.' Well, then,
wherein is this love and hatred demonstrated ? God doth not openly
declare it in his present dealings with the rebellious and the righteous,
therefore it shall be seen in his final dealing with the wicked oppressors
of his people, and those that walk uprightly. Therefore there is a life to
come, for in this life this love and hatred is not sufficiently expressed ;
not his hatred against the wicked, even in the judgment of them who
have no great knowledge of the nature of sin, and the punishment which
is competent thereunto ; nor his love to the godly, who are often ex-
SEUMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 135
poped to bitter sufferings, and seem to be less favoured in the course of
his external providence than their enemies. Therefore there is a time
to come, when he will show his love to the good in making them
everlastingly happy, and his detestation of the wicked in eternal
torments.
[3.] Come we now to the justice of God. It is agreeable to the
justice of his government that it should be well with them that do well,
and ill with them that do evil, and that he should make a difference by
rewards and punishments between the disobedient and the righteous.
Conscience hath a sense of this, and therefore checketh and cheereth,
as we have done good or evil. Heathens had accusing or excusing
thoughts, which the apostle urgeth as an evidence to the gentiles of
judgment to come: Eom. ii. 15, 16, 'Which show the works of the
law written upon their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one
another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by
Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.' If every man's thoughts do
accuse or excuse him respectively according to the nature of his
actions, then there is in nature a sense of this different retribution.
Notions of good and evil are as naturally implanted in our hearts
as notions of truth and falsehood, and a man is as sensible of a
difference between comely and base as between the right hand and
the left ; only the notions of good and evil are sooner corrupted than
the notions of truth and falsehood. However, the workings of consci
ence cannot utterly be choked and deadened in any, though most men
seek to stifle it, and the voice of it be oftentimes unheard. The very
profane have hidden fears frequently revived in them because of these
retributions of God's justice. The apostle telleth us, Eom. i. 32, ' Who
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things
are worthy of death.' They were none of the tenderest men that are
here spoken of, but such as were extremely debauched and corrupted,
and did delight in the company of those who were as corrupt as them
selves. Well, then, conscience is sensible of a reward and punishment,
but this is not fully nor universally dispensed in this world ; yea,
rather the worst are permitted to enjoy most here, when the good are
kept in a low and bare condition. And that is not the whole case ; the
worst do not only differ from the best, but are permitted to triumph
over them. Now no righteous governor will suffer his disobedient
subjects to persecute those who most carefully obey him, if he hath
power to remedy it ; and therefore, though he may permit it for a
time, yet he will call them to an account, and then amends and satisfac
tion shall be made to them that have suffered wrongfully. Therefore
the wicked are reserved to future punishment, and the godly to future
reward.
[4.] Come we now to the goodness of God. The Lord is inclined to
do good to his creatures ; and if there were no sin to stop the course of
his bounty, there would be nothing but happiness in the world ; but
certainly if any recover out of a state of sin, and are willing to devote
themselves to God, and to contemn all their natural interests for his
sake, certainly the Lord will be good and kind to them. A certain
truth it is that no man serveth God for nought ; and it is ev
136 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
one of the first maxims of religion, that ' God is, and that he is a
rewarder of them- that diligently seek him,' Heb. xi. 6. Next to his
being, we believe his bounty, that God's service, first or last, will turn
to a good account. And it is the rather to be believed by us,
because carnal and corrupted nature begrudgeth everything, and
in the eye of sense all is lost that is laid out upon God. We say
with Judas, ' What needeth this waste ? ' The same opinion that
Seneca had of the Jewish sabbath, the same thoughts have carnal
men of the service of God. He said the Jews were a foolish
people, quia septimam cetatis partem perdunt vacando, because a full
seventh part of their lives was lost in idleness and rest. While men
are under the influence of such thoughts, they will never do anything
for God that is great and worthy. And therefore, to confute this false-
conceit during the time of his patience, the superficial service he
getteth from us hath its reward. He giveth many temporal blessings-
to those that worship him in the slightest fashion ; as he suspended
his judgments upon Ahab's mock humiliation, 1 Kings xxi. 29 ; and
his present providence plainly declareth that none shall be a loser by
God, nor do anything for nought. He pleaded by the prophet against
this people for their sorry services and contemptuous usage of him :
Mai. i. 10, ' Who is there even among you that would shut the doors
for nought ? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I
have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept
an offering at your hand;' that is, the porters of the temple did not
open and shut the doors for nought, nor the Levites that kindled the
fire, nor the priests attend upon the burnt-offering for nought ; they
were all well rewarded with tithes, portions, and oblations, and this by
the Lord's own appointment and allowance. And again, if anything-
be done sincerely, though never so mean and inconsiderable, it hath its
reward : Mat. x. 42, ' And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of
these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, he
shall in no wise lose his reward.' The smallness and meanness of the
benefit, help, and refreshing, done to any in Christ's name, shall not
make it lose its estimation and recompense. This, though hardly
credited by the unbelieving world, is very true : ' Verily I say unto
you,' and ' he shall in no wise,' &c. ; they are emphatical expressions.
But now the more eminent services, which are carried on with hazard
and difficulty and very considerable self-denial, surely they shall not
fail of their recompense. Whatever we lose for Christ, we shall receive
again with infinite advantage : Mark x. 29, 30, ' And Jesus answered
and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands r
for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold
now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and
children, and lands, with persecution, and in the world to come eternal
life.' He shall in this life, in the midst of his persecutions, and the
time of his trials and troubles, have an hundred-fold ; not in kind, an
hundred wives and mothers (as Julian and Nero scoffed at the
Christians), but in value, in peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy
Ghost, and the satisfaction of having discharged his duty. But God
will not rest there ; in the world to come he shall have eternal life.
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 137
Now, then, the argument groweth upon our hands. If self-denying-
obedience would be not only man's loss but utter ruin, and he be made
miserable by his duty without any recompense, God would not dnly be
not the best, but the worst master ; and they that suffer the loss of life
and all things by the cruelty of their persecutors would be utter losers
by their faithfulness and obedience to God, which is contrary to the
experience of all mankind, and all that natural light and sense of
religion that is in men's hearts. Surely Christ would never proselyte
us to a religion that is our undoing, nor shall any of his people be
losers by him, or they that venture the most for him be in the worst
condition ; and therefore there must be another life, wherein he will
fulfil the good he hath promised, and execute the evil threatened.
2. From the nature, state, and condition of man.
[1.] He is God's subject ; not left at liberty to break or keep God's-
laws at his own pleasure, which he would seem to be if no harm would
come of it, yea, present good and profit ; for we see here the wicked
live a life of pomp and ease, and often have their will upon the' godly,
and oppress them at their pleasure ; their wickedness is their advantage.
Now this is not only a great discouragement to the gracious and
heavenly-minded, but would quite destroy all obedience, if there were
not assurance of a better estate. Therefore God expresses himself as
particularly engaged to punish such as flatter themselves with hopes,
of impunity, though they go on in their wickedness : Deut. xxix. 19, 20,
' And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that
he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I wallr
in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. The
Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his-
jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are
written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall
blot out his name from under heaven.' They that add the moist
to the dry, and the dry to the moist. So Zeph. i. 12, 'And
it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with
candles, and punish the men that are settled upon their lees, that say
in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil/
And on the other side, he considereth the case of the faithful, that thej
have an opposite principle against their duty within their hearts, which
must be always curbed and suppressed ; and they meet with many
temptations from the oppositions and reproaches of those that like not
that sort of life which they addict and apply themselves unto ; and
therefore if they have not sufficient motives to keep them in the love
of God and obedience to the end, how shall they bear up against all
these blasts of persecution, when all the world is against them ? They
need both their cordials and their solaces from another and better
world. Therefore God assureth them that their fidelity and obedience
shall not be lost, that they are blessed already, and shall be perfectly
blessed hereafter : James i. 12, ' Blessed is the man that endureth.
temptation ; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that love him ; ' 1 Peter iv. 13,
' But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that
when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding
joy ; ' that is, that these sufferings are sure pledges of the glory that
138 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
shall ensue. Their joy is suspended while the glory of Christ is under
a veil, but when he is manifested to the world, they shall be manifested
to be the children of God. Alas ! otherwise what would become of
the best servants God hath in the world, when they are hooted at by
the clamours of the wicked rabble, and pursued with sharp laws, and
exposed to great difficulties and hardships, if they had no life to live
but this ? The bare sense of our duty would not support us in this
state of imperfection if there were not a great recompense of reward
set before us ; so that the persuasion of another life is necessary to
secure our duty.
[2.] Man is bound to be upright and sincere in God's service, or to
get such a constitution of soul as to resolve to adhere to God, what
ever temptations he hath to the contrary. Our Lord describeth the
good ground to be ' that good and honest heart which, having received
the word, keeps it, and brings forth fruit with patience,' Luke viii. 15.
This was a principle not denied by many heathens, who esteemed the love
of honesty and goodness better than this mortal life with all its appurte
nances, and thought that a man was never sincere nor thoroughly honest
till he did abhor the practice of any villany and impiety more than death,
and those things which were ra avrXai? ayaQa, absolutely good, a man
ought to love them more than life, and lose life rather than omit their
practice. Now such principles, whether they saw it, yea or no, do
necessarily conclude and infer a life after this much better than this is,
and an estate of torment much worse than death to those that have
lived and died dishonestly ; for everything that hath a being doth by
an indispensable law of nature desire the continuance of its being, but
most of all its well-being, or the bettering of its present estate.
Therefore every man (if there be not a life after death) is bound to
seek the preservation and continuance of this life above all things in
the world besides ; and to do that, no device would be dishonest or
practice amiss. But all they that have ever heard of the name of virtue
abhor this principle as base and odious, that a man should make what
shift he can, though never so base and wicked, to maintain and save
his life. No means used to this end are to be accounted foul, for no
thing is so ill as death, nothing so good as life. But if this would
destroy all honesty and virtue, then certainly we have hopes and fears
of another life. If you will say, No ; virtue is a sufficient recompense
to itself, at what rate soever it be purchased and maintained ; yet what
is there to countervail all the losses and grievances it exposeth us unto,
such as the loss of life and limbs ? Virtue is a sufficient reward to
itself, spe, non re, in hope, not in the thing itself, but so far as it is the
only way to everlasting communion with God, who is our exceeding
great reward, or so far as the assured hope of a better life after
death is inseparably connexed to the constant practice of godliness in
this life. And to do good merely for goodness' sake, without any eye
or respect to the reward, is a strain of devotion contrary to that doctrine
which is taught us by Christ and his apostles.
[3.] With respect to man's comfort and solace in his troubles, which
ariseth from reflecting on our future reward when all things go cross
to us here : ' Comfort one another with these words,' saith the apostle,
1 Thes. iv. 18. Now what words were those ? The belief of a blessed
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 139
resurrection of those that died in or for the Lord ; that is, by occasion
of the faith of Christ. He thought that consideration sufficient to
yield matter of comfort or support to them. These are consolations
proper to Christians, because they are sure, as depending upon Christ's
word ; and they are congruous and suitable, because their hearts are
set upon these things; not upon a vain world, but a blessed and
glorious estate that Christ hath offered, and himself is entered into ;
and when we get thither, our affections will be satisfied, desires granted,
and hopes fulfilled. So that still the apostle's reasoning is strong : ' If
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miser
able ; ' for our consolations, which are fetched from the other world, are
our proper consolations.
[4.] With respect to the credit and esteem of God's servants in the
world. It is neither for the glory of God nor the safety of his people
that the most eminent virtue and goodness should lie under perpetual
infamy. God's servants do not only suffer hard things, but their names
are cast forth as evil. Now this is not for the honour of God, because
it reflects upon him when the children of wisdom are represented as sons
of folly, in checking their lusts, venturing their interests, and renounc
ing their all for their fidelity to Christ, as if they did foolishly in
running into such inconveniences, when they might spare themselves, and
sleep in a whole skin. Now it is a great dishonour to God that his
wisest and most faithful servants should be accounted fools, and an
humorous odd sort of men, that needlessly trouble themselves and
others. This hardeneth the world in sin, and would quench and destroy
all zeal for God, if there were not a time coming when the wisdom of the
world shall be seen to be the greatest folly, and that there are no such
fools as those that employ their greatest abilities in attaining present
pleasure, profit, and preferment ; but those are the wisest adventurers
who have sold all to promote the glory of God and gain Christ, who
look not upon things as they appear now to the sensual and deluded
world, but as they will be found at the last day, when all things shall
be seen in their own proper colours. Neither is it for the safety of the
saints, who, though they seek nothing but the public good, are traduced
as the troublers of Israel, and their way condemned as factious singu
larity. Therefore it is a great satisfaction that we have hopes that
things shall be reviewed, and that which is good be restored to its
public honour, and the godly, who prize a good name above all earthly
interests, shall have their faith found to praise and honour and glory :
1 Peter i. 7, ' That the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found
unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.'
Use 1. It showeth us how much it concerneth us to be assured of the
future estate. It is the life of our religion ; it bindeth our duty upon
us by the strictest tie, and doth also establish our true and proper com
fort. If we may have hope of better things from Christ in another
world, not only in our calamities, but by our calamities, we should not
have such dark and doubtful thoughts about eternal blessedness, but live
more in the clear foresight of it by faith, and the foretaste of it by
hope. Especially should this support us in two cases in sharp afflic
tions, and in death.
1. In sharp afflictions. We are apt to take scandal and offence at
140 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
the sufferings that befall us for righteousness' sake ; but consider not
only the promises of Christ, but that our very persecution is an argu
ment of our final deliverance. The opposition of ungodly and un
righteous adversaries is ' to them an evident token of perdition, but
to you of salvation, and that of God,' Phil. i. 28. That they are
wretched and obdurate people, and run on to their own destruction ;
but that you are sincere and penitent believers, who are not drawn away
from your fidelity to Christ by any terrors whatsoever. It is not evSetft?,
not only an argument to confirm the hopes of the gospel, but a mark
and token of your sincerity; it confirmeth your right. Well, then,
though our afflictions be smart and grievous, let us comfort ourselves
with these hopes. You are not to look to present things, but future ;
not to what is applauded in the world, but what opinion Christ will
have of them at the last ; not to what you feel now, but what you shall
enjoy hereafter. Though all things appear with pomp and glory on
the world's side, and terror to the saints, yet this scene is soon withdrawn,
and present time is quickly past, like a dream or piece of fantasy ;
and then there is an utter inversion of things ; shame is on the wicked's
side, and honour put upon the saints ; and the shame and glory are both
eternal ; and when they enter into everlasting torments, we enter into
our master's joy ; and the children of God, that are derided and
vilified in the world, are then approved and justified by Christ ; and it
shall be plainly seen that they have chosen the better part that have
chosen the faith, and patience, and holiness of the saints.
2. In death. This is a comfort suited to that time. When you die 7
you may commend your souls to Christ; as Stephen: Acts vii. 59 r
' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit' God trusted Christ with souls from
all eternity ; they were given him by way of charge and reward ;
and you may trust him, for he is able to make good his trust : 2 Tim.
i. 12, ' I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day/
If they are consecrated, they may be committed. And you may dismiss
your bodies to the grave, there to rest in hope : Acts ii. 26, ' More
over also my flesh shall rest in hope ; ' Acts xxiv. 15, ' And have hope
towards God, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of
the just and unjust.' So Acts xxvi. 68, 'And now I stand and am
judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers :
unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and
night, hope to come : for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am
accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible
with you, that God should raise the dead ? ' Death seemeth to make
void all the promises at once, but there is an estate after death. The-
dead shall rise ; and to men bred up in the church this should not seem
incredible. It is not incredible in itself, considering the justice and
power of God ; and this should not seem incredible to us, since all
religion tendeth to it ; but rather you should entertain it as a matter
of undoubted certainty. All true believers do look and long for and
prepare for this blessedness ; otherwise why should they trouble them
selves about religion, which abridgeth them of present delights, and
often exposeth them to great difficulties and sufferings ? But there is
another life, which is happy and joyful; and therefore we serve God
instantly day and night.
SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19. 141
Use 2. That it concerneth us to see this blessed estate, not only by
the light of faith, but reason. Though the light of scripture be more
sure and clear, yet the light of nature hath its use. Nature saith, It
may be ; faith saith, It shall be ; yet the light of nature must not be
rejected.
1. Because things seen in a double light work the more strongly upon
us ; as our affections are stirred more by a double consideration than a
single. As Paul said of Onesimus to Philemon, that he was dear to
him, but much more dear to him ' both in the flesh and in the Lord,'
ver. 16, as being one of his faith, and one of his family ; so this work-
eth upon our faith, when even nature teacheth us that it is reasonable
to expect such a retribution ; then all vain cavils are refuted. All have
not received the light of scripture, at least with such veneration and
reverence as they ought to do : to such the light of nature is a prepa
rative inducement either to believe, or to believe it more firmly. Nay,
the children of God have not such a steady belief of the life to come
as they ought to have, especially in time of temptation, as the time of
grievous and bitter persecution is. Surely we need all the succour and
relief which the nature of the thing will afford. Evil is present and
pressing, and our great hopes are to come ; surely then, besides the
grounds of faith, we must study the helps of faith. The grounds of
faith are the promises of the gospel; the helps of faith are such
demonstrations and evidences as the light of nature will afford in the
case. Therefore reason must be allowed to be an handmaid to faith.
2. Because by this means a temptation is turned into an argument.
Men doubt of the being of God, of providence, and the future estate,
because of the afflictions of the good ; and this is one means to settle
you in the belief of these things. It is good to observe how differently
men will reason from the same principles ; for the wicked draw another
conclusion hence, either that there is no God, or he hath no respect to
human affairs, or that all things are governed by chance, or the like.
So elsewhere you may see what contrary and different conclusions. the
carnal and the spiritual draw from the same premises ; as David infers
the immutable certainty of God's promises : Ps. cxix. 89-91, 'Forever,
O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven: thy faithfulness is unto all
generations. Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth: they
continue this day according to thine ordinance.' But the scoffers said,
* Where is the promise of his coming ? For since the fathers fell asleep,
fill things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,' 2
Peter iii. 4. Because the frame of nature had kept one constant tenor
and course, they plead for the eternity of the world, and the falsehood
of the promises ; but David was hereby confirmed in the belief of God's
constancy and fidelity. So from the brevity of life ; see the different
conclusions drawn from hence : 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, ' The time is short :
it remaineth that both they that have wives be as if they had none, and
they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though
they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not, and
they that use the world as not abusing it.' On the contrary : 1 Cor.
xv. 32, ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.' So from
the grace of God : Jude 4, 'Turning the grace of God into lascivious-
ness ; ' compared with Horn. vi. 1, ' Shall we continue in sin, that grace
may abound ? ' So also, 2 Sam. vii. 2, ' I dwell in an house of cedar
142 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.' Observe the workings
of David's heart : The Lord hath built me a stately house, but what
have I done for God ? But those wretches, Hag. i. 2, ' This people
say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be
built.' So 1 Sam. iii. 18, 'It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth
him good ; ' compared with 2 Kings vi. 33, ' Behold, this evil is of the
Lord ; why should I wait for the Lord any longer ? ' See Prov. xxvi.
9, ' As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable
in the mouth of fools.' All is as the heart is.
3. Because if the perverse carriage of things now be not a confir
mation to your faith, it will at least be an help to your meditation.
Improve the argument as it was set forth before, by your most serious
thoughts; thus: Surely there is a God; he is wise, holy, just, and
good, and would not impose duty upon a man, but he hath encourage
ments and rewards to quicken him to the performance of it. Few
Christians are so firm and strong in believing but they may find it a
prop to their faith. Certainly all are so barren of thoughts that they
will find it an help to their meditation. Would God make laws with
a sanction of penalty and reward, and never look after them more ?
Doth he delight in the prosperity of his servants or their afflictions ?
Would he raise hopes and desires which he never meant to satisfy ?
give the wicked power to afflict and vex his people, and never call them
to an account ? bid us venture our all for him, and give us no recom
pense ? If such thoughts were more frequent with us, God would bless
them to the increase of faith, love, and hope.
Use 3. Is to persuade us to live in the constant hopes of this blessed
estate in the life to come. Hope is a certain and earnest expectation
of the promised blessedness. Let me show you (1.) The necessity of
this hope ; (2.) The encouragements of it.
1. The necessity that the hope of eternal glory should always be
cherished in us.
[1.] Because it is a special act of the new nature : 1 Peter i. 3, 'Who
hath begotten us to a lively hope.' As soon as we are children, we look
for a child's portion. The new nature presently discovereth itself by
its tendency to its end and rest, which is the fruition of God in heaven.
Indeed, the scriptures speak of a twofold hope one that is the imme
diate effect of regeneration, and flows from our acceptance of the new
covenant, and dependeth upon the conditional offer of eternal life ; we
take it for our happiness, resolving to seek it in God's way ; without
this we are not new creatures. There is another hope, which is the
fruit of experience, and belongeth to the seasoned and tried Christian,
who hath approved his own fidelity to God, and hath had much trial
of God's fidelity to him. This is spoken of, Horn. v. 4, 'Patience
worketh experience, and experience hope.' This produceth not a con
ditional certainty, but an actual confidence of our own salvation. The
former is more necessary, for we live by it, but this is very comfortable.
[2.] Because it is the great end why the scriptures were written, to
beget and raise this hope in us : Kom. xv. 4, 'For whatsoever things
were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.' It is the
business and design of these holy books.
[3.] Because the keeping up of this hope with zeal and industry is
SERMONS UPON 1 COKINTHIANS XV. 19. 143
the distinguishing character between the temporary and the sincere
convert. The one loseth his taste and comfort, and so casteth off the
profession of godliness, or neglecteth the powerful practice of it ; the
other is diligent, serious, patient, mortified, heavenly, and holy, because
' he holdeth fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto
the end/ Heb. iii. 6. And his end sweetens his work, for this grace
doth quicken the whole spiritual life : Titus ii. 12, 13, ' Teaching us
that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ.'
[4.] Because we have nothing else to support us and fortify us
against the difficulties that fall out between our first right to eternal
life and our full possession of it. In our journey to heaven there are
many sufferings and trials which must be undergone, and hope is our
strength and support. He that sets his face heavenward will find
difficulties that attend his service, temptations that assault his con
stancy, and troubles and calamities to which his religion exposeth him.
Now it is hope carrieth us through, and therefore it is compared to an
anchor : Heb. vi. 19, ' Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil ; '
and to an helmet : Eph. vi. 17, ' And take the helmet of salvation,' com
pared with 1 Thes. v. 8, ' And for an helmet the hope of salvation.' As we
would not go to sea without an anchor, and to war without an helmet,
so we must not think of carrying on the spiritual life without hope ;
nothing else will compose the mind, and keep it stable in the floods of
temptation, or cause us to hold up our heads in our daily conflicts and
encounters. Without this anchor our souls are in danger of spiritual
shipwreck ; without this helmet our heads are exposed to deadly blows
from sin, Satan, and' worldly discouragements.
[5.] We shall need it not only while we live, but we shall have most
need of it when we come to die. They that are destitute of the hope
of glory then are in a dangerous, woful, and most lamentable case:
Job xxvii. 8, ' For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath
gained, when God taketh away his soul ? ' They may be full of pre
sumption and blind confidence while they live, but what hope have
they when they come to die ? All their worldly advantages will afford
them no solid comfort. They live in a presumptuous dream that all
shall be well ; but then they die stupid and senseless, or else despairing,
and their hopes fail them when they have most need of them.
2. The encouragements of it.
[1.] God's gracious covenant and promises. God would not invite
and raise an hope to disappoint it, for surely God will not disappoint
the creature that dependeth upon his word ; and therefore we are
allowed to challenge God upon his word : Ps. cxix. 49, ' Kemember
the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope/
It contains a double argument ; the promise was of God's making, and
the hope of his operation ; the grant of the new covenant, and his
influence by the Spirit. We have a strong tie upon God ; as he giveth
us the promise, which is a ground of hope, we may humbly put the bond
in suit ; and when his Spirit hath caused the hope, it is not with a
purpose to defeat it.
,
144 SERMONS UPON 1 CORINTHIANS XV. 19.
[2.] Consider what a foundation God hath laid for his promises:
2 Tim. ii. 19, 'The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
The Lord knoweth them that are his ; ' 2 Cor. i. 20, ' For all the
promises of God in him are Yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of
God by us.'
[3.] Observe what God hath given you by way of earnest. Hope is
not built upon promises alone, but also upon assurances and earnest ;
the promises are contained in the word of God, but the earnest is given
into our hearts : 2 Cor. i. 22, ' Who hath also sealed us, and given the
earnest of his Spirit in our hearts ; ' 2 Cor. v. 5, ' Now he that hath
wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who hath also given unto us
the earnest of the Spirit ; ' Eph. i. 13, 14, ' In whom also, after that ye
believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased pos
session, unto the praise of his glory.' Though God be truth itself, and
promiseth nothing but what he meaneth to perform, yet he will give
earnest of his promises, and a pledge of his affection to us. An earnest
is a part of the sum which is promised, so is the earnest of the Spirit
a part of the promised felicity. God would not altogether weary us,
and burden us with expectation, but giveth us somewhat in hand.
Surely he that giveth us earnest will give us the whole sum. The earnest
of the Spirit consisteth in light, life, grace, joy ; one drachm of these
is more precious than all the world, and yet these are but an earnest.
Now, having such a confirmation in the midst of our doubts and fears,
let us with more confidence look to receive the whole in due season.
[4.] Some already have got home to God upon the same terms, and
in the same way in which you expect to get home to him. Think often
of the happiness of the blessed, who are now enjoying what we expect,
and are in possession of that supreme good which we hope for. They
are entered into the joy of our Lord, and have neither miseries to
fear nor blessings to desire beyond what they enjoy ; they possess all
that they love. And though the time of our advancement to these
privileges be not yet come, yet we should look and long for it. We
are all of the same family : Eph. iii. 15, ' Of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named.' It is but one household ; some live in
the upper room, some in the lower, some in heaven, some on earth ;
but we are all of the same society and community : Heb. xii. 23, ' To
the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in
heaven.' We are said to be already come into this fellowship, only
they have gotten the start of us, and are made perfect before us, that
we should follow after. We are reconciled to the same God by the
same Christ : Col. i. 20, ' By him to reconcile all things unto himself ;
by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.'
And we expect our portion from the bounty of the same Father. If
he hath been so good to that part of the family which is now in heaven,
will he not be as good to the other part also ? Therefore they that
are working out their salvation with fear and trembling may encourage
themselves, and look upon this felicity as prepared for them, though
not enjoyed by them. It will one day be their portion, as well as those
others who have passed the pikes, and are now triumphing with God.
SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
To them w7w, by patient continuance in well-doing, seels for glory ana
honour and immortality, eternal life. ROM. ii. 7.
IN tliis scripture we have a plain and full character of the heirs of
promise, or a short but complete description of that good which is
necessary to life. The words are occasioned by the apostle's mention
ing of the righteous judgment of God, which rendereth to every man
according to their works. That general mentioned in ver. 6 is more
distinctly explained in the next verses, wherein he showeth how the
righteous judge will carry himself towards the good and towards the
bad in the judgment of absolution and condemnation : towards the
good in the text ; toward the bad, ver. 8, 'Bat unto them that are
contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indig
nation and wrath.' The one is a reward of grace, and the other is a
punishment awarded by his exact justice. We are to consider the
first of these, the reward of grace, 'To them who, by patient con
tinuance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality,
eternal life.'
In the words observe the qualification and the reward
1. The qualification or description of the heirs of promise.
[1.] By their end and design : they ' seek for glory, and honour, and
immortality.'
[2.] The means or way wherein they seek it ; by '. well-doing.'
[3.] Their constancy and perseverance in that way, tcad' VTTOJJLOVTJV,
by ' patient continuance.'
Well, then, here is a short and full description of those who shall be
saved. They are those who, out of the hope of the eternal reward,
persevere in the obedience of the truth; for they that 'continue in
well-doing ' are opposed to them that ' obey not the truth, but obey
unrighteousness,' whereby is intended those that sin against the light
of nature, and refuse the direction of the gospel. So that ' well-doing '
must be stated partly by the light of nature, and partly by the light
of scripture ; or rather, by this latter alone, as it compriseth and ex-
plaineth the other. And their constancy and patient continuance in
this work is as considerable as the work itself. Continuance implieth
a constant tenor of righteousness and holiness ; and patient continu
ance implies continuance notwithstanding temptations to the contrary,
or bearing the persecutions which they underwent for the duties of the
VOL. XIX. K
146 SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
Christian profession, still going on in the pursuit of that reward which
Christ hath promised.
2. The reward is ' eternal life.' This they looked and this they
laboured for. They were not carried on upon temporal encouragements,
but eternal bliss in the world to come ; and this is an excellent counter
poise against the loss or the discomforts of the present life.
Doct. That God will give eternal life to all those who by patient
continuance in well-doing seek after it.
The point will be best opened by discussing the circumstances of the
text. I shall speak (1.) Of the qualification ; (2.) Of the reward.
I. The qualification. And there I must speak
First, Of their design and aim: they 'seek for glory, honour, and im
mortality.' In all businesses and affairs the end must be first thought of.
Now these persons which are here described propound to themselves
the noblest and highest end which the heart of man can pitch upon,
even ' glory, honour, and immortality.' Amongst men, the ambitious,
who aspire to crowns and kingdoms, and aim at perpetual fame by their
virtues and rare exploits, are judged persons of greater gallantry than
covetous muckworms and brutish epicures ; yet their highest thoughts
and designs are very base and low in comparison of sincere Christians,
who ' by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and
immortality/ and whom nothing less will content and satisfy than the
enjoyment of God himself in his heavenly kingdom, and all that happi
ness which he hath promised to his faithful servants. The threshold
will not content them, but the throne ; their end is far more noble than
the designs of all the rest of the world. And whereas others do carry
themselves but as an higher and wiser sort of beasts, and so are un
worthy of an immortal soul, these carry themselves as men possessed
with a divine spirit. The beasts have an instinct that guideth them to
seek things convenient for that life which they have ; and a man that
is satisfied with his portion here, and only relisheth the contentments
of the rational and bodily life, carrieth himself more like a living
creature than a rational creature, more like a beast than like a man ;
all their business and bustle is to have their wills and pleasure for a
while, as if they had not any hopes or fears of any greater things here
after : Ps. xlix. 20, ' Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is
like the beasts that perish;' because he merely inclineth to present satis
factions ; for reason is a middle thing between the life of faith and
the life of sense. If it be not sublimated by faith, it is debased by
sense ; and then what great matter is it if you be a man, or a dog, or
a swine, if reason be only given you to cater for the body, and to make
provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof ? But let us more
distinctly see what is the aim and design of those noble and brave spirits.
There are two things in the text the object and the act ; the thing
aimed at, and their respect towards it.
1. The thing aimed at is 'glory, honour, and immortality.' Let me
open the meaning of these words apart, and then show why so many are
heaped together.
[1.] Glory. Glory is status illustris, appearing excellency. There
is a glory of this world, but that is fading : I Peter i. 24, ' All flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.' The
SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7. 147
flower is more fading than the grass itself, and is sooner shed than the
stalk rotteth ; so many a man's excellency dieth before he dieth, and his
glory is gone, "when he remaineth as a neglected stalk. But this is a
more solid glory, called by the apostle, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 'A far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' This glory is in their persons :
Koin. viii. 18, 'For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us ; '
.Phil. iii. 21, ' Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto his glorious body ; ' Mat. xiii. 43, ' Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father ; ' 2 Thes. i. 10,
' When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired
in all them that believe.' All the spectators shall stand wondering what
he meaneth to do with those who were but newly crept out of dust and
rottenness, so wonderful is the glory of the saints in the world to come.
And as this glory concerns their persons, so their state. Christ will
advance them to a glorious estate, to high dignity and honour, which
the scripture expresseth sometimes by thrones : Kev. iii. 21, 'To him
that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I
also overcame, and am sat down with my Father in his throne ; ' some
times by a crown : 2 Tim. iv. 8, ' Henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give
me at that day.' Visible marks of favour and honour will Christ put
upon them.
[2.] Honour ; that imports praise and commendation, for honour
is a testimony of excellency. To seek the honour of this world is
destructive to faith : John v. 44, ' How can ye believe, which receive
honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God
only ? ' But the honour which Christ will put upon those that are
faithful to him in the world to come is the great object of faith, by
which we vanquish those temptations of disgrace and scorn which we
meet with here in this world. Christ will then commend their faith
before men and angels : Eev. iii. 5, ' I will confess his name before my
Father, and before his angels.' Oh, what a blessed thing is it to be
owned by Christ, and approved as faithful in his service by the judge
of all the world, at whose sentence we must stand or fall ! The apostle
saith, 2 Cor. x. 18, ' For not he that commendeth himself is approved,
but whom the Lord commendeth.' To have a testimony in our own
consciences is very sweet. Let the world slander, yet, if God approveth,
it is sufficient. But it will be more honourable to us when the judge
upon the throne shall acquit us ; and not only so, but approve and com
mend us. It is said, 1 Cor. iv. 5, 'Judge nothing before the time, until
the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of dark
ness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart ; and then shall
every man have praise of God ; ' that is, be not too forward in your
censures ; in time God will display the seducers, and discover every
man's intentions and purposes. Then they that deserve it shall have
shame, and every man that hath done well shall by God be justified and
commended. What kind of approbation we shall have is shown : Mat.
xxv. 21, ' Well done, thou good and faithful servant.' This is the honour
which the saints expect.
[3.] The third word is ' immortality,' a<f>6apo-tav, incorruption. All
143 SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
the glory and honour of the world soon fadeth away. If our fame
survive us, what good will it do us when we are dead ? Alas ! it is but
a poor shadow of that eternal glory and honour which Christ will put
upon the saints. Their glory is immortal, and never withereth. The
glory and honour of the world is uncertain ; their hosanna is soon
turned into a crucifige, crucify him : 2 Bam. xix. 43, ' We have ten
parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye.'
And in the very next verse, chap. xx. 1, ' We have no part in David,
neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse : every man to his
tents, Israel.' They who but just now claimed ten parts in David,
presently disclaim and disown him, as having no part in him at all; so
suddenly are men's affections and esteem of us altered. And as our
glory perisheth, so we perish, even the best of men : Acts xiii. 36,
' David after he had served his own generation, by the will of God fell
asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption.' What a deal
ado men keep to get praise and honour in the world ; but what doth this
profit you when you are dead, and must be laid in the grave with others?
But the saints look higher. As they seek ' glory and honour,' so they
seek incorruption or ' immortality ; ' a glory which will abide with them,
and they with it, to all eternity.
Thus we have considered the words apart. Now why are so many
heaped up together ? It is not done casually ; the same is observed
elsewhere : 1 Peter i. 7, ' That your faith may be found unto praise,
and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' Now this is
done partly to represent the fulness of this blessed and glorious estate.
The honour which Christ puts upon his servants at his appearing is
manifold. Many words cannot express it ; they shall be much com
mended, and gloriously rewarded. And partly to recompense and
make up the shame and disgrace of our trials. How infamous soever
Christ's servants be in the world, yet they are glorious with God, and
honourable in his sight ; and ' when Christ shall appear, they shall
appear with him in glory,' Col. iii. 4. Well, now, this is the object of
the expectation.
2. Their respect to it ; they seek it. Seeking implies two things
(1.) An hearty desire ; (2.) An earnest endeavour in the use of means.
[1.] An hearty desire ; for seeking is the earnest desire of a thing
lost or absent. The seeking of this glory, honour, and immortality
implieth an earnest desire of it, as appeareth by Col. iii. 1, 2, ' If ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above ; ' which is further
expressed by, ' Set your affections upon things above.' And this is not
a slight desire, but such a desire as prevaileth above the desires of
other things ; such an affection to them as is not controlled by other
affections : Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness.' First, that is, so as our pursuit of other things doth not
cross our affections to these. Many desire heaven and glory, but they
are soon put out of the humour, and take up with the pleasures, and
honours, and profits of the world, and they become slaves to their
fleshly appetites and senses, and the good things here below.
[2.] Seeking implieth diligence and an earnest endeavour, such as
the woman used that sought her lost groat : Heb. xiii. 14, ' Here we
have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.' If we desire it,
SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7. 149
and long after it, something must be done in order thereunto. As our
desires are greater, so our endeavours will be greater than after worldly
things ; for to seek is to bestow our earnest care and serious diligence
upon it. See how it is expressed in scripture ; by labour : John
vi. 27, ' Working,' and ' working out ; ' Phil. ii. 12, by ' pressing
towards it ; ' Phil. iii. 14, by ' striving ; ' Luke xiii. 24, because we
meet with opposition. You must not think to come to the enjoyment
of this great happiness with idleness and cold wishes. No ; we must
be at pains, and such pains as flesh and blood will count hard labour.
Well, now, we may from hence conclude the first part of the mark of
the heirs of promise.
(1.) By the object; they are distinguished from the wicked and
carnal part of the world, who covet the honours, riches, and pleasures
of the present life; but these are engaged in a more noble design;
they ' seek glory, and honour, and immortality ; ' that is, they seek not
vainglory, but labour to make themselves truly glorious, honourable,
and immortal.
(2.) Again from the object and act together ; they distinguish
themselves from all infidels and unbelievers ; for they ' seek glory and
honour ' where it is to be found, and in the way wherein it is to be
found, and so go upon sure grounds. They are ascertained by the
truth of God's word, and depend upon it, that if they seriously set
themselves to obey and honour God in the world, they shall have glory
and honour with him : 1 Sam. ii. 30, ' Those that honour me, I will
honour ; ' John xii. 26, ' If any man serve me, him shall my Father
honour ; ' and elsewhere. Upon this they are certain.
(3.) By the seriousness of the act ; they distinguish themselves from
hypocrites or partial believers. Those that have a slight sense of
eternity will desire ' glory, and honour, and immortality ; ' but to
desire it so as that it shall be their top care ; to desire it so as that all
other things should be lessened in their opinion, estimation, and affec
tion ; to desire it so as to labour after it in the first place ; this is the
disposition of the sincere only. They can withdraw the veil of sense,
and look to the glory that cometh from God only. They prize it
above all the glory of the world, and resolutely choose it for their
portion, with an habitual and thorough consent of their wills ; and the
drift, and aim, and bent of their lives is to be for God and their salva
tion, and this is first and chiefly sought after in all their endeavours.
Secondly, The means and way wherein they seek after it : 'By
patient continuance in well-doing.' A good design without a good way
is nothing ; and therefore, next to a right end, we must choose a right
way ; and if we desire salvation, we must mind the right way thither.
Now in the way and means three things are considerable. Here is
(1.) Well-doing ; (2.) Continuance; (3.) Patient continuance. If one
of these be wanting, all cometh to nought. If well-doing be wanting,
our perseverance is but an obstinacy in things sweet and pleasing to
the flesh ; and our patience but a carnal self-denial, nothing conducing
to our great end. If well-doing be regarded, yet if there be not a
continuance, or a continuance only when we are put to no trial, then
the benefit is lost. All three must concur.
1. For well-doing. Let us state that first, that we may not be mis-
150 SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
taken. The world is filled with ill notions ; every man applaudeth
himself in his own course, be it never so vain. The covetous, the
ambitious, the dissolute, when they thrive in their several ways, they
will think they do well : Ps. xlix. 18, ' Though whilst he lived, he
blessed his soul ; and men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy
self/ A man's own self-deceiving heart measureth good and evil by
his present condition in the world. The brutish worldling applauds
himself in his own course when it succeedeth. The glutton thinketh
he doeth well when he maketh much of, and cherisheth and pampereth
himself. The ambitious applaudeth himself in his good fortune. The
prodigal, when he spendeth, thinketh he doeth well ; and the covetous,
when he spareth, thinketh he doeth well ; and contrary persons will say
so. Ay ! but there must be another rule than the fancies of men ;
that is, well-doing, which really turneth to our eternal good. To do
well is to obey righteousness, to obey the truth ; for it is opposed to
those that violate the light of nature, and wrangle and dispute away
that true religion which is offered for their cure and remedy.
[1.] To do well is to obey righteousness, or to act agreeably to
those obligations which lie upon us with respect to our relation to God,
others, and ourselves. There are but three beings in a moral considera
tion God, neighbour, and self. Paul's adverbs are suited to them :
Titus ii. 12, ' Soberly, righteously, and godly/ As to self-government
of our fancies and appetites, we are to live ' soberly/ in an holy weaned-
ness and moderation in the midst of all present delights and comforts.
As to our neighbour, we are to live ' righteously," in all justice, truth,
mercy, fidelity in our relations, as parents, husbands, subjects, children,
wives. As to God, we are to live c godly,' in an holy subjection to
him, and entire dependence upon him, and communion with him. So
to do well with respect to God is to behave ourselves as to one that is so
excellent, powerful, and good, and upon whom we depend so much,
not breaking his laws for all the world. As to others, ' Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, do even so to them,' Mat. vii. 12.
Not only negatively, to prevent the wrong, but positively, to do good.
As to ourselves, we must subordinate all things to our true happiness,
and be more careful for the soul than for the body. All this, righteous
ness, or the evidence of natural light, calleth for at our hands, that we
love our creator, and live to him, and depend upon him ; for if he be
God, he is our first cause, highest Lord, chiefest good, and last end.
That love to others is showed in doing to them as we would should be
done to us. We would have others helpful to us, so must we to em
power be helpful to them ; he that will be for none but himself cannot
justly expect that any should be for him. And for ourselves, man
consists of a body and of a soul. Now all our senses and bodily powers
and appetites must be subordinated to the good of the soul ; for the
soul is the chiefest part. Well, then, if we live in the neglect of God,
and be only self-lovers and self-pleasers, and wrong ourselves by grati
fying our flesh, do we do well ? If we prefer every paltry vanity
before the favour of God, slander and wrong our neighbour, please
appetite before reason, and let the beast ride the man, surely we obey
unrighteousness ; we do not do well
[2.] We must obey the truth ; that is, act agreeably to the revealed
SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7. 151
will of God in scripture ; that is to do well. It is the scripture which
helpeth us to distinguish good from evil, and will be a sure direction
in well-doing : Ps. cxix. 105, ' Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and
a light unto my path ; ' Prov. vi. 23, ' For the commandment is a
lamp, and the law is light ; ' Isa. viii. 20, ' To the law and to the
testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them.' We are not to be ruled by our own thoughts,
but by God's word, which amply sets forth our duty to us. The
light of nature is very dim, and it would be a matter of great difficulty
to find out our duty if we had no supernatural light to help us. There
fore God hath given his word, and that not only to instruct us in
moral duties, most of which are evident by the light of nature, but
also in supernatural verities, which tend to our relief and deliverance
by Christ. Well, then, well-doing is not one work only, but all our
entire obedience, which is necessary to salvation, that we may not only
love God, do good to others, govern our appetites and desires, but
believe in Christ, and live according to his holy institutes, and perform
all the duties which belong to his new remedying law. This is well
doing.
2. There must be continuance in well-doing. As we must endea
vour universally to do all that God hath commanded us, so we must
continue this care unto the end : Luke i. 75, ' In holiness and righteous
ness before him all the days of our life.' In a journey it is not enough
to go a mile or two, but we must continue till we come to our journey's
end ; so must we never give over whilst we are in this world. There
may be interruptions, diversions, and stragglings, but a Christian
gets into the way again. Sometimes we slip and stumble, and some
times step aside, but we must not go back again. Some are good for
a pang or fit : Deut. v. 29, ' Oh, that there were such an heart in them
that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always!' I
might heap up many considerations here, but the thing is evident.
The law bindeth continually, and g/ace planted in the heart should
influence all our actions. God's eye is always upon us, and every hour
and moment we are anew obliged to him for his benefits. How
reasonable is it our duty should last, and the use of means be continued
till we attain our end ! Therefore do not lose your crown, and the
benefit of all you have done already. The promise runneth to per
severance : Eev. ii. 10, ' Be thou faithful to the death, and I will give
thee a crown of life.'
3. Here is patient continuance ; that is necessary also. The good
ground is described to be that which ' bringeth forth fruit with pa
tience,' Luke viii. 15. The other grounds brought forth fruit, but they
did not bring forth fruit with patience. The stony ground was im
patient of contradiction and afflictions ; the thorny ground was im
patient of the delay of the reward, and therefore took up with present
things, riches and honours and voluptuous living ; but they that have
a deep sense of the other world, and can tarry God's leisure, enduring
the hardships of obedience, and look for their happiness in the world
to come, that is the good ground. So Heb. vi. 12, ' Be ye followers of
them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' We shall
meet with opposition within and without ; till we can deny ourselves,
152 SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
our hearts are not sound with God. We need the working patience,
because of the labour and pains which belongeth to well-doing ; and
the waiting patience, because our reward is to come ; and the bearing
patience, because of the troubles and dangers which we must endure,
if we would be faithful with God ; loss of estate, slanders of the wicked,
and sometimes danger of life. The working patience should not be
grievous to us, because the pains of godliness will be recompensed with
the fruit of it, the peace and comfort that followeth it ; and because
there is more labour in committing sin than doing good. The waiting
patience should not be grievous, because there must be a time for the-
trial of our faith. They are hypocrites which must have their reward
at present : Mat. vi. 2, ' Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.'
The believer he can wait for it ; he looketh for glory and honour too,
but not now. The bearing patience should not be irksome, because-
faithfulness in our trials is most comfortable to us, and most acceptable
to God. Comfortable to us ; we have not ordinarily so clear a proof
of the reality of grace as when we are under sore trials : 1 Peter' i. 7,,
' That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold,,
though it be tried with fire, may be found unto praise, and honour,,
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' Faith is then faith indeed,
and obedience obedience indeed. The greater the work, and the more
impediments we meet with, self-denying obedience doth most evidence
itself to the conscience. Whilst we do anything for God, while we
do it without shame, opposition, and loss, it is more hard to interpret
our sincerity : it is more acceptable to God ; it is tried friendship and
obedience which is most valuable. The obedience of a soldier is pleas
ing to a general in a time of peace ; when he saith to one, Go, and he
goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; but especially in the
most desperate hazards, when he doth not dispute commands when he
is bidden to go upon the cannon's mouth. From the whole, mortifica
tion, self-denial, contempt of the world, patience under manifold suffer
ings, is necessary to all that would be faithful with God, and are sure-
notes of his people.
II. The reward is eternal life. This will make amends for all. By
it is meant all manner of happiness.
1. Eternal life is a freedom from all misery whatsoever, in estates,,
names, relations, bodies, souls. As the body is free from all weakness,
so the soul is free from all sin ; faultless, without spot or wrinkle.
2. There is a perfect and entire possession of all manner of good ;
God is all in all to them.
3. This estate is to abide for ever and ever.
Use 1. Let us examine whether we be in the number of those that
shall be saved. Eternal life is believed of all Christians, at least with a
dead opinionative belief ; they do not count it a lie or a fable. Now,
who are those that shall enjoy it ? for God will not give it to all.
I answer Here is a plain note and evidence by which you may judge
your claim (1.) They are such as seek it; (2.) They seek it in a.
way of well-doing ; (3.) They continue thus to do.
1. They that seek it ; for God will never bring us to heaven with
out our wills nor against our consent, nor make that man happy that
doth not desire to be so ; yea, that doth not seek it in the first place.
SERMON UPON ROMANS IT. 7. 153
Now this cutteth off a great many ; all them that do nothing towards
the attaining of it, and all them that seek nothing, have no settled design,
but live at haphazard, as occasion offereth, and leave the boat to the
stream ; that come into the world they know not why, and go out of
the world they know not whither. All such careless and inconsiderate
people can have no claim ; all such have no higher end than to enjoy
their sensual pleasures while they may. Besides, they that do not seek
it in the first place. They do something, but it is little or nothing to
the purpose. The strength and choice of their desires and endeavours
are not directed this way. Eternal life must be esteemed and chosen
above other things which draw our hearts, and must be chiefly sought
after in our endeavours, and then something may be gathered from
seeking.
2. They seek it in a way of well-doing ; not only praying for it, but
living according to the directions of God's holy word ; that is to say,
by seeking his favour in Christ, and maintaining communion with God
in the Spirit, by serious converses with him in the means of grace,
governing our affections and passions, and by a constant self-denial,
mortification, and temperance, getting a victory over the world and
the desires of the flesh. And as to others, by carrying ourselves in all
meekness and charity, without envy, malice, injury, and oppression,
and doing good to all as we have opportunity, especially, to the household
of faith. This is the well-doing recommended to us in the scripture, and
this is our beginning and progress towards eternal life ; for we must
apprehend it not only under the notion of glory and immortality, but
under the notion of exact holiness as well as complete happiness ; under
the notion of conformity to God and communion with God ; for God's
will is done in heaven as well as upon earth ; and the heaven of Chris
tians is to see God and to be like him. Many seem to desire it as a
state of felicity, but they hate it as a state of perfect holiness (which is
the better part of it), a sinless, immaculate estate. Well, then, by
this part of the evidence many are excluded. Partly all those who
live according to their own humours and fancies, and vain desires, and
the customs of men, or the course of this world, and were never
acquainted with a life of holiness spent in communion with God and
subjection to his will. Partly also all they that do evil, dishonour God,
oppress and wrong their brethren by violence or slanders, and live in
malice and envy, who were never acquainted with self-government, or
bridling their sensual and worldly desires, so that the honours, profits,
id pleasures of the flesh have the pre-eminence in their esteem, choice,
md practice. Partly too all those that do no good ; that have not fed,
risited, clothed, relieved the destitute, comforted the afflicted : Mat.
xxv. 41-45, ' Then shall he say also to them on the left hand, Depart,
/e cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels :
for I was an hungry, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, and ye
jave me no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in ; naked,
id ye clothed me not ; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
?hen shall they answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
lungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and
lid not minister unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying,
^"erily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to the least of these,
154 SERMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
ye did it not to me.' In short, all those who yield no obedience to
God, but cast off his yoke, or that yield a partial obedience, submit
ting it may be to outward acts of worship, but neglecting the duties of
justice and charity ; or, on the other side, make conscience of duties
of commerce with men, but delight not in communion with God, and
trouble not themselves with seeking his favour and reconciliation by
Christ.
3. They are such as continue patiently in a course of well-doing to
the end of their lives ; for it is not enough to begin well, but the work
must still be carried on till we come to receive our reward : Heb. iii.
14, 'For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of
our confidence steadfast unto the end.' But you will say, If our com
fort be suspended upon this condition, then we can never know that we
are heirs of promise till we come to die. I answer It is not eventus
perseverandi, not actual perseverance to the end, which maketh the
evidence ; but labor, conatus, et cura perseverandi, the resolution and
endeavour to continue in a diligent use of all means, to continue in the
way of well-doing, and to please God in all things. And the more you
thus give diligence to persevere in this holy purpose, the more assurance
you get of the goodness of your condition : Heb. vi. 11, ' And we desire
that every one of you do show the same diligence, to the full assurance
of hope to the end ; that ye be not slothful,' &c. A Christian may be
assured, and his assurance groweth upon him the more he sets himself
continually to obey God. Now this part of the evidence cuts off partly
all those that are only good by fits and starts and good moods ; some
times they set their faces heavenward, but their lusts return, and then
they are worse than they were before : partly those who prove final
apostates; they began to build, but they leave the work unfinished,
and ' after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again en
tangled therein, and overcome,' 2 Peter ii. 20.
Use 2. Is exhortation, to press you
1. To seek after honour, glory, and immortality. Oh, this is the
best pursuit you can engage in. What is better for you ? Can the
world or the devil propound anything so good, or better, than this
glorious estate? Are the dreggy contentments of the flesh, the vain
glory and honour of the world, the uncertain riches we enjoy here,
worthy to come in competition with eternal life ? Surely in matter of
motive a Christian hath the advantage, however a carnal man hath the
advantage in matter of principle, because in him it is wholly entire
and unbroken.
2. To well-doing. Surely you should not need many arguments to
press you to do well ; rather to press you to do ill should be the more
difficult task, it is so contrary to our reason, and the right constitution
of our natures, but that we are strangely depraved. Christians !
what do we invite you to, but to love God above all, and seek his
favour in Christ, and love your neighbour as yourself, and by temper
ance, purity, and chastity to preserve your own vessels, both bodies
and souls, in sanctification and honour ? Surely these duties are not
gyves, but ornaments; and such subjection to God should be preferred
before liberty in sinning.
SEHMON UPON ROMANS II. 7.
155
3. To continue with patience. I will press you to this by two argu
ments'
[1.] There will be always the same reason for going on that there was
for beginning at first. Did the sense of your duty invite you ? The
same bond of duty lieth upon you still. Did the hopes of the world to
come engage you ? Heaven is not yet obtained. And will you lose
all the cost you have been at already ? Gal. iii. 4, ' Have ye suffered so
many things in vain ? '
[2.] There can be no temptation great enough to recompense you for
the loss of your reward of eternal life. Is it reproach ? When men
despise, God will honour thee ; and it is a blessed thing to be reviled for
righteousness' sake. Is it worldly loss ? Better lose the world than
lose our souls : Mat. xvi. 26, ' What will it profit a man if he should
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? ' Is life in danger ?
Losing life for Christ is the way to save it ; and John xi. 25, ' Though
he were dead, yet shall he live.' Is it the continual reviving of troubles?
In the other world there is nothing to assault thy perseverance ; there
thou art out of the gunshot of temptations, and shalt serve God with
out defect or difficulty ; there our service is not troublesome to us.
SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be witli you all. Amen.
2 COR. xiii. 14.
MY purpose is to open the apostolical benediction or prayer for the
Corinthians ; for our way of blessing is only to pray for those whom we
bless. To love others is to desire their good. They that love best and
most desire the best good for their friends; and better good there
cannot be desired than that those we love may have God for their God.
Now they that have God for their God have all that is in God, and all
that is God. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost will employ all
his wisdom, power, and goodness, to save them from all evil, and bring
them to eternal blessedness. This is that which is prayed for in this
place : ' The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.'
In the words we have
The thing prayed for, together with the persons from whom ; or
rather
1. The matter of the blessedness wished, ' The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Ghost/
2. The effectual application to the Corinthians, ' Be with you.' ,
3. The confirmation of these hopes and desires, in the word ' Amen.'
1. The matter of the blessing. It consists of three branches, suited
to the persons of the godhead (1.) The grace of Christ ; (2.) The
love of God ; (3.) The communion of the Holy Ghost.
2. The effectual application, ' Be with you.' These things are with
us, or in us, two ways (1.) In the effects ; (2.) In the sense.
[1.] In the effects, when we have the fruits of the Father's love and
Christ's grace and the Spirit's operation : ' That the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them/ John xvii. 26.
[2.] In the sense and feeling, when we comfortably know it is thus
with us : John xiv. 21, ' He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father ;
and I will love him, and manifest myself unto him ; ' Horn. v. 5,
' Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Gbost,
which is given unto us.'
3. The confirmation of these desires and hopes, in the word ' Amen ; '
which is signaculum fidei, an expression of faith ; and votum desiderii,
an eruption of our desire and love.
SERM01S UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14. 157
Doct. That all the persons of the blessed Trinity do concur to the
happiness and salvation of believers.
Here let me show you (1.) How they do concur ; (2.) Why they
do concur.
I. How they do concur. Let us explain in the text.
1. Here are all the persons of the Godhead mentioned. God is
taken personally for the Father, and then Jesus Christ and the Spirit
are distinctly mentioned. So in other scriptures : 1 Peter i. 2, ' Elect
according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father, through sanctifica-
tion of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ.' The fundamental cause of salvation is the election of God,
who, when he had all fallen mankind in his prospect and view, was
pleased to choose out some to grace and glory, passing by others.
Then there is reconciliation ascribed to Jesus Christ, and sanctification
to the Spirit, as the means by which this purpose is brought about.
The beginning is from God the Father, the dispensation is by Jesus
Christ, and the application is through the Holy Ghost. So also Titus
iii. 4-6, ' But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regen
eration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us
abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.' God the Father out
of love sent a saviour, by whose grace we are saved ; and God the Son,
from God the Father, sent God the Holy Ghost, who applieth the love
of God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by renewing and
healing our natures. So 2 Thes. ii. 13, 14, ' But we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sancti
fication of the Spirit, and belief of the truth ; whereunto he called you by
our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ ; '
where the three persons are again mentioned, and their concurrence to
our salvation.
2. That words proper to their personal operation are used ; for there
is love ascribed to the Father, grace to the Son, and communion to the
Holy Ghost. The Father is represented as the fountain of love and all
goodness, and as expressing and exerting his love by the Son and Spirit.
By the 'grace of Christ' is meant all that gracious provision which
he hath made for man's salvation, both in the reconciling God to us,
and procuring the mission of the Spirit. ' Communion ' is ascribed to
the Spirit, because all is applied or communicated to us by him. Or
thus, our salvation is ascribed in election to the love of the Father, in
redemption to the grace of the Son, in sanctification to the communion
or participation of the Holy Ghost.
[1.] ' The love of God.' Love is ascribed to the Father ; for the
love of God is the cause of all. Consider his giving Christ for us, or
giving Christ to us, and us to him. (1.) In giving Christ for us:
John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten.
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have ever
lasting life.' Christ did not merit electing love, but love rather moved
God to give Christ for sinners. Love appointed the Son to be our
Bedeemer ; there was the bosom and bottom cause. (2.) In giving
158 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14.
Christ to us : John vi. 37, ' All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me ; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out ; ' John
xvii. 6, ' I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world ; thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and
they have kept thy word/ And in time he doth execute and accom
plish this out of his mere love : Jer. xxxi. 3, ' The Lord hath appeared
to me of old, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee/ As by elective love
the heirs of salvation were distinguished from others in God himself, or
in his intention and purpose, so by regeneration and converting love
they are distinguished from others in themselves, and set apart from
the rest of the world, to be the objects of his special love and instru
ments of his glory. Besides, there is a love of God whereby he loveth
us when we are in Christ Jesus, which is the ground of our safety and
preservation : Rom. viii. 38, 39, ' For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of "God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord/
[2.] ' The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ/ What is intended us by
the Father is brought about by the grace of the Redeemer, and there
fore all the provision Christ had made for our salvation is called grace :
2 Cor. viii. 9, ' For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that,
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich ; ' that is, ye know his gracious condescen
sion in submitting to such a mean condition for our sakes. So 1 Cor.
xvi. 23, ' The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all/ Grace
is God's favour and love, which was first purchased by Christ by his
obedience and bloody sufferings : Rom. iii. 24, ' Being justified freely
by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ/
Secondly, applied by his intercession, which is also another act of his
grace ; and therefore we ' come boldly to the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in time of need,' Heb.
iv. 16 ; namely, ' having a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God,' ver. 14, who knoweth our infirmities.
Thirdly, as it is bestowed by him, as Lord of the new creation, upon
such terms as every way keep up the honour and interest of grace
in our salvation : Eph. ii. 8, ' By grace ye are saved, through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God/ All the saving benefits
we have by Christ are from grace, such as reconciliation with God, the
renovation of our natures, and everlasting glory and happiness ; they
are all dispensed in a gracious way from first to last.
[3.] ' The communion of the Holy Ghost/ Communion is ascribed
to the Holy Ghost. It may be rendered communion or communication.
The Spirit reneweth and changeth our nature, and worketh faith and
holiness in us. Light, life, and love are the special benefits which he
communicates to us. He doth enlighten our minds, to understand
and believe the great tilings prepared for us by God through Jesus
Christ. It is said, 1 Cor. ii. 10, ' But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God/ So Eph. i. 17, 18, ' That the God of our Lord Jesus
SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14. 159
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of him ; the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,
and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.' Life ;
for we live in the Spirit, and are born of the Spirit ; that is, have a
new life begotten in us, therefore called a Spirit of life: before we
lived as men, now as Christians. And love ; the heart is bent and in
clined to God. It began in love, and endeth. in love ; love of God
endeth in love to God. This threefold effect is expressed, 2 Tim. i. 7,
' For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and
a sound mind.' Life in power, as light in a sound mind. And it is
altogether called the divine nature : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you
might be partakers of the divine nature;' for it answereth to the
wisdom, power, and goodness of God.
3. That all these words imply riches of goodness, bounty, and liber
ality. Love noteth a ready inclination to do good to others, without
the excitement of external motives ; it openeth and enlargeth the heart
to another, and then the hand cannot be shut : 2 Cor. vi. 11, ' ye
Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you ; our heart is enlarged.'
Grace is some good thing freely given. So tcoivcovia, communion,
noteth a liberal effusion or distribution of the graces of God's sanctify
ing Spirit ; and so it suiteth with ar^atrt] eov, and %pt? Xpia-rov, ' the
love of God/ and ' the grace of Christ ; ' elsewhere, rcoivwvia 7rvoevfj,aro<;,
'the communion of the Spirit,' is joined with 'bowels and mercies : ' Phil,
ii. 1, ' If any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies ; ' that
is, if you have received any good from Christ by the Spirit. So Horn,
xv. 26, ' For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a
certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.'
What is in our translation to ' make a contribution ' for the saints, is
in the original KOUWVIOV fronjcradai,, to make a communion or com
munication. So 2 Cor. viii. 4, ' Praying us with much entreaty, that
we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the mini
stering to the saints," icolvwviav rij<; Suucovlas. So 2 Cor. ix. 13, 'And for
your liberal distribution unto them,' airKoTrjrt r?}? Kowwvias. So here,
' the communication of the Spirit.' If you will render it ' communion,'
this is the great effect of the love of God and the grace of Christ, that we
are made members of Christ's mystical body by the Spirit : 1 Cor. xii. 13,
' For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body ;' and so are united
to the head, and to one another by this bond of union. The church is
a mystical body, whereof Christ is the head, and the Holy Ghost is,
as it were, the heart of it ; the one guideth this great body, the other
quickeneth it. Now in this mystical body we actually come to the
participation of what Christ hath purchased for us by the Holy Ghost.
4. These make way one for another, or work into each other's hand ;
for what the Father intended, Christ purchased, and the Spirit applieth.
God the Father is as the fountain of grace, Jesus Christ as the con
duit or pipe to convey it to us, and the Holy Ghost the immediate
operator and worker of it ; the Father of his good pleasure electing
sinners to grace and glory, the Son by his obedience and sufferings
purchasing it, that it may be brought about in a way convenient for
160 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14.
God's honour, the Spirit by his virtue and power working grace in them.
There is not a different effect from the Father which is not from the
Son, and from the Son which is not from the Spirit, but they concur
in an united way, that what cometh from the Father cometh from the
Son and the Spirit ; the Father makes way for the Son's work, and the
Son for the Spirit's. So back again ; the Spirit is said to honour the
Son : John xvi. 14, ' He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you ; ' and the Son is said to glorify the Father :
John xiv. 13, ' And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son.' The Spirit acts as sent
by Christ, and Christ as sent by the Father. This is necessary to be
regarded by us, because as our salvation in the general is from the
Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, so in all our commerce with
God, God the Father, as a judge, by the spirit of bondage sendeth us
to Christ as mediator, and Christ as mediator by the Spirit of adoption
sends us back again to God as a Father. It is a great help to prayer :
Eph. ii. 18, ' For through him we both have an access by one Spirit
unto the Father.' To whom are we praying ? To God as a Father.
Whence have we hopes of audience ? By Christ. Who giveth us an
heart to come ? The Spirit.
II. The reasons why they concur.
1. That we may have the higher esteem of the work, which hath such
agents concerned in it. It is no slight thing to bring about the salva
tion of lost sinners ; all the persons of the godhead are at work about
it ; and shall not we, who are the parties interested, be employed about
it also ? God is in good earnest ; for therefore before all worlds he
ernplo} T ed the riches of his wisdom and grace to save us in this con
venient way : 1 Peter i. 20, ' Who verily was fore-ordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.'
And who are we, that the thoughts of God should be taken up
about us so long ago ? Jesus Christ hath spared no pains to accom
plish the work of our redemption, but freely offered himself to this
work : Heb. x. 7, ' Lo, I come to do thy will, God.' He repented
not his undertaking, but was fully contented, if souls may be saved :
Isa. liii. 11, ' He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied.' And the Holy Spirit continueth striving with us, though
often grieved by our obstinacy and disobedience : Gen. vi. 3, ' My Spirit
.shall not always strive with man ; ' Isa. Ixiii. 10, ' They rebelled,
and vexed his Holy Spirit.' Many a conviction do we smother, and
often check, and resist his motions, yet he is importunate to prevail
with us.
2. That our hearts may be raised to give equal glory to all the
persons concerned. We must honour the Son as we honour the Father,
as it is expressly said, John v. 23, ' That all men should honour the
Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son,
honoureth not the Father that hath sent him.' There is an honour due
to God only, not to be given to any other. Christ is equal with the
Father in participating this honour ; he is to have the same glory of
believing, love, fear, and invocation. So also for the Spirit ; he is an
object of invocation ; for as the apostle wisheth and desire th love from
the Father and grace from Christ, so a liberal distribution and com-
SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14. 161
munication of gifts and graces from the Spirit. Now, to excite us to give
this due respect to all the persons, every one concurreth in his way to
promote our final happiness and salvation. The Father deserveth this
esteem from us. Many think of God the Father as all wrath
and justice, difficult to be reconciled to man ; and of the second
person of the Trinity as more' gracious and merciful. No ; the love of
God is the original of our redemption: God 'spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all,' Eom. viii. 32 ; and ' God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them/
2 Cor. v. 19 ; and ' the Father himself loveth you/ John xvi. 27. Christ
came to show the amiable nature of God : ' Being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person/ Heb. i. 3. Then for the
Lord Jesus, in Christ the glory and riches of the grace of God doth
more eminently and palpably appear. This is the contemplation of the
saints : John i. 14, ' And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us ; and we beheld his glory (the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father), full of grace and truth ; ' Eph. iii. 18, 19, ' That ye may be
able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God ; ' Heb.
iii. 1, 'Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ.'
His grace, thus condescending to men, is more eminently seen : Rom.
v. 8, ' But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us ; ' and Rev. i. 5, ' To him who loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' And for God the
Spirit, we also find our hearts raised to give him glory ; partly by the
motions of his grace, which we feel in our hearts: IPs. cxliii. 10, ' Teach
me to do thy will, for thou art my God : thy Spirit is good ; lead me
into the land of uprightness ; ' Neh. ix. 20, ' Thou gavest also thy good
Spirit to instruct them.' The sanctifier, guide, and comforter of
believers is God's Spirit ; he is the only author and fountain of all
goodness and holiness. And partly by the comfortable sense he begets
in us of our adoption: Gal. iv. 6, 'And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father ; ' and of our hopes of glory : 2 Cor. v. 5, ' Now he that hath
wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who hath also given unto us
the earnest of the Spirit.' And partly by the support and comfort we
have from him in all our conflicts and distresses : 1 Peter iv. 14, ' If
ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit
of glory and of God resteth upon yon : on their part he is evil-spoken
of, but on your part he is glorified.'
3. That we may with more confidence wait for the beginning, pro
gress, and consummation of our own salvation. There is the eternal
love of God, the all-sufficient merit of Christ, and the omnipotent
operation of the Holy Ghost. What cannot eternal love, infinite merit,
and almighty power do ? As Christ is necessary to keep all right be
tween us and God, so the Spirit is necessary to keep all right between
us and Christ. As we need a person of the godhead to satisfy the
justice of God, so also to overcome our obstinancy and unbelief, and to
vanquish temptations, and doubts, and fears, and to settle us in the
VOL. XIX. L
1G2 SEIIMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14.
comfort and hope of the gospel. It is God's prerogative to settle the
conscience : Isa. Ivii. 19, ' I create the fruit of the lips ; Peace, peace, to
him that is afar off, and to him that is nigh, saith the Lord.' God is
the supreme judge and the wronged party : ' He commands his loving-
kindness in the day-time,' Ps. xlii. 8. By a powerful, imperial act of
the Spirit, he stilleth our doubts and fearfe.
4. That the whole glory of our salvation may redound to God alone.
Therefore the divine persons carry it on among themselves; love,
grace, and communication do all : ' To the praise of the glory of his
grace, wherein lie hath made us accepted in the beloved,' Eph. i. 6.
Grace is the fountain cause of our election ; grace bringeth it about ;
for who could ransom a soul except Christ had taken the work in
hand ? There would have been a stop there : Ps. xlix. 7, 8, ' None of
them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom
for him ; for the redemption of their soul is precious, and ceaseth for
ever/ There would have been a stop there. Grace applies all. What
are we before the grace of the Spirit ? how unworthy till grace make
us lovely ! how unable to lay hold on it before the Spirit of God enable
us ! Eom. v. 6, ' For when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly.' And how unable are we to make good
use of it afterward ! For (1.) What was our behaviour before calling ?
' Disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures,' Titus iii. 3. (2.) In
calling, it was slight and refractory : Job xxxiii. 14, ' For God speaketh
once, yea twice, but man perceiveth it not.' He often inviteth, but
men take no notice of what so much concerneth their soul's good, but
slight all warnings and instructions, lay not their condition to heart,
and many an opportunity is lost ; but God overcometh men's evil by
his own goodness, and will not lose his elect ; therefore, ver. 16, ' He
openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction ; ' that is, breaketh
in upon them in such a powerful way that they cannot withstand it.
(3.) Since calling there are frequent interruptions of obedience : James
iii. 2, ' For in many things we offend all.' Our best performances are
weak and full of blemishes : Isa. Ixiv. 6, ' We are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.' So that from
first to last all floweth from God, and all floweth from love, and grace,
and communication of the Spirit, that our persons and actions are
accepted. Now it is our duty to acknowledge this love, and highly
esteem this glorious grace, and to testify our esteem by word and work.
By word, in praises; by deed, expressing our thankfulness in our
lives, that they may be a constant hymn to God, and a praise of his
grace that we are made partakers of.
Use 1. To encourage us to seek after the effects of this love of God,
grace of Jesus Christ, and communion of the Spirit.
1. I will plead your want. What will you do if you have not Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost for your God ? You have your beings from him
for a while, but the day of his patience will not always last. You
must die, and give an account ; and woful, yea, dreadful, will their
account be who are not only involved in the common apostasy, but have
heard of the transactions of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost about their
recovery, and never minded the benefit, or made light of it. Surely
it is wot'ul dulness and stupidity not to value it, and to feel no need of it :
SEUMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14. 163
2 Cor. vi. 1, ' We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also
that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.' What grace was that ?
' God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,' chap. v. 19.
That grace which the Father hath contrived for your salvation ; that
grace for which Christ laid down his life; that grace which is so
affectionately tendered in the gospel ; that grace and that free un
deserving mercy which is so suitable to your necessities. Will you
despise this ? It was an act of infinite love of God to design it and
reveal it to you ; of Christ, to purchase it for you ; of the Holy Ghost,
to offer it to you ; yea, to strive with you to make you capable of it.
.Shall the gospel be cast away upon you, and all those gracious methods
of God frustrated ? Or have you no need of it ? How will you maintain
peace in your consciences now without grace ? How will you stand
before God's tribunal at the last day ?
2. Let me plead the worth of it. He that hath this love of God,
this grace of Christ, this communion of the Spirit, wanteth nothing to
his solid happiness ; he hath all necessary things in their cause and
fountain ; for he hath God, Christ, and the Spirit ; for all things come
from the love of God, and the grace of Christ, and the communion of
the Holy Ghost. And he doth possess all things in that measure that
God sees fit for him : Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, 'The Lord will give grace and
glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly.' It bringeth other mercies with it, and nothing is good
without it. All things are mercy, even those that fall out contrary to
our expectations : Kom. viii. 28, ' All things shall work together for
good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to
his purpose.' Well, then, they that know the want of grace, or the
worth of grace, will earnestly seek it.
3. Let me plead the possibility of obtaining it ; for the three persons
conspire and agree together, not to your ruin, but salvation. Whatever
may be expected from infinite love, eternal merit, and almighty power,
it is all offered to those that will seek after it. There are none but
are sensible that they need to address themselves to God for pardon
and a blessing. Now God is an holy God ; how shall sinners deal with
him ? As the prophet said to Ahab, ' If it were not that I regard the
presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look towards
thee, nor see thee,' 2 Kings iii. 14. Whatever we seek and expect from
God, we must seek it from Jesus Christ, who hath purchased all : Isa.
liii. 5, ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his
stripes we are healed ; ' Eph. i. 7, ' In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins.' And he is appointed to bestow all
that which he hath purchased : Acts v. 31, ' Him hath God exalted
with his right hand, to be a prince and a saviour, to give repentance
to Israel, and remission of sins.' And by his intercession he doth apply
all : Heb. vii. 25, ' Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost
that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them.' Well, then, if we will go to Christ, he sendeth us to the
Spirit, who worketh all, and doth accomplish in us the pleasure of his
goodness. Go to the Spirit ; he must heal you and help you. The Spirit
sendeth us to the means : Acts i. 4, ' And being assembled together with
them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
164 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 14.
but wait for the promise of the Father.' You shall find him present
in the ordinances. Oh, what encouragement have we to be serious, and
in the use of the means by which the Spirit worketh !
4. We are obliged by our baptismal covenant : Mat. xxviii. 19, ' Go
ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost take upon them to convey this love, grace, and power ; and we
take upon ourselves to accept the Father for our Lord and happiness,
Christ for our redeemer and saviour, and the Holy Ghost for our guide,
sanctifier, and comforter ; to obey his motions, to use those means
whereby we may feel his power, to avoid those wilful sins which may
grieve the Spirit, and cause him to suspend his operations and comforts.
There we are consecrated as children to the true God, consent to receive
Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and obey his Spirit. Now make
conscience of this vow.
Use 2. Is to put us upon self-reflection. Is the love of the Father,
and the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost with us ?
Do we seek our happiness in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ? Or do you
consent that God shall be your God, as reconciled to you in Jesus
Christ ?
1. As to the Father. Do you own him as your rightful Lord ?
and are you willing to return to his obedience by Jesus Christ ? Do
you take him for your portion and felicity ? Do you expect to receive
all your happiness from him ? valuing and preferring his favour and
love above all the pleasures, profits, and honours of the world ? Ps. iv.
6, ' There be many that say, Who will show us any good ? Lord, lift
thou up the light of thy countenance upon us/ Admiring it ? 1 John
iii. 1, ' Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons God ! ' ' His favour is life,' Ps. xxx.
5. Yea, better than life : Ps. Ixiii. 3, 'Because thy loving-kindness is
better than life, my lips shall praise thee.' Willing to forsake all
rather than forsake him. Behave yourselves with that thankfulness
as those that owe yourselves and all your happiness to him : 2 Cor. v.
14, 15, ' The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that
if one died for all, then were all dead : and that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them, and rose again.' Carry it as those that are
obliged by love.
2. Do you take Christ for your only saviour and redeemer ? giving
up yourselves to be saved by his merits, righteousness, and intercession,
as he hath promised in the word ? Do you trust yourselves and souls
with him for pardon, peace, and endless happiness ? depend upon his
covenant and promises for reconciliation with God, and everlasting
fruition of him in glory ? trampling upon all things, rather than turn
your back upon your Kedeemer's grace ?
3. Do you yield yourselves to the Holy Ghost ? Are you unfeignedly
desirous to be rid of sin as displeasing to the holy God, how dear
soever it hath been to you ? And do you submit to the Spirit, to be
sanctified and perfected by degrees in the means he hath appointed,
being ruled by his motions rather than the desires of the flesh ? Do you
observe his accesses and recesses, and behave yourselves accordingly ?
SERMONS
SEYEEAL TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
To THE EIGHT HONOURABLE SIR THOMAS ABNEY, Kt., Alderman,
and Lord Mayor of the City of London, with his most religious
CONSORT.
MY LOUD AND LADY, Whoever have known the spirit and temper of
worthy Dr Manton, appearing in his not-yet-forgotten life, and con
spicuous in his never-to-he-forgotten writings, and do know anything
of your temper and spirit, will not think it an incongruity that your
names and his do thus stand together on the same page. Your lordship's
high esteem and value of him, made public to the world, can reflect
no dishonour upon you, either in your own judgment, or any man's that
is a capable judge of persons and things. And your ladyship's kindness
to his memory is even hereditary, descending to you from your worthy
father, between whom and him there was so inward and continued a
friendship as scarce ever hath been a greater, expressed by beneficence
on the one part, and gratitude on the other.
And that an eminent servant of Christ, who, through the track of
so many years, hath been so great and public a teacher, and example
of the ancient, serious piety, righteousness, sobriety, strictness of manners,
with most diffusive charity (for which London hath been renowned for
some ages beyond most cities in the world), should have his memory
revived by such a testimony from persons under your character, and
who hold so public a station as you do in it, can never be thought
unbecoming, as long as clearly explained and exemplified religion, solid,
useful learning, and good sense, are in any credit in the world.
This volume will, as an addition to his many former most useful and
most approved works that have gone before it, further, through God's
blessing, contribute to the mending the world. And as it adds reputa
tion to the author, so will the countenance you give it add to your own
reputation. That it may also redound to your real and the common
advantage is the cordial prayer of, my honoured lord and lady, your
most faithful humble servant in Christ, JOHN HOWE.
THE PREFACE.
CHRISTIAN HEADER, The many volumes of sermons that come yearly
from the press may in all probability incline some at first to apprehend
that, ns to what is here presented, the publisher might have spared his
pains. But till we can find another Dr Manton, and performances like
to his, there is no sense in the censure. Of many attempts in this kind,
it had been wished they had proved abortive, there arising no credit to
those concerned, nor benefit to the world ; but the excellence of Dr
Manton's sermons is so conspicuous, that none can attempt to detract
from them, but it must be from ignorance or envy. Living and dying,
he had that reputation for a king of preachers that hath been reached
by few. Archbishop Usher was wont to say of him, that he was a
voluminous preacher ; not as if he was tedious for length, but because
he had the art of reducing the substance of volumes of divinity into a
narrow compass. Mr Charnock oft represented him as the best col
lector of sense of the age. And Dr Bates, in his sermon at his funeral,
declares it with admiration, that though he was so very frequent in preach
ing, yet he was always superior to others, and equal to himself. Here are
three substantial witnesses of undoubted credit ; and he that won't
confirm their testimony with his own (upon the perusal of his com
posures) manifestly shows he hath no gust. No man spun a more even
thread through all his sermons, which are as much of a piece as can
well be conceived ; so that if any of them are valuable, they are all so ;
for the same spirit and sense, substance and warmth, is discernible in
all of them. As for this volume, it hath nothing spurious, nothing
unbecoming the author, nothing mean or trivial ; but it contains several
as valuable and useful discourses as any that have been already printed.
And if any have given themselves the liberty to say, The doctor runs
dregs (the best being culled out before, and these the refuse left), it is
a sign they did not know him ; nor is it doubted but a perusal of what
is here offered will rectify their mistakes. These sermons were all
transcribed from his own notes, and crave the reader's candour to give
them that charitable allowance which is due to all posthumous works.
That light and love, knowledge and holiness, may be increased, and
diffused more and more through this land and city, by all the labours
of those whom Christ hath sent into his vineyard, is the hearty prayer
of one of the meanest and unworthiest of them,
EICHARD STRETTON.
SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V.
SERMON I.
Be ye therefore folloivers of God, as dear children. EPH. v. 1.
THIS chapter containeth several precepts concerning holiness of life.
They are of two sorts ; some are general, and common to all Christians ;
others are special, and particularly suited to the condition and state of
life they may be put into. The apostle beginneth with the common
directions that belong universally to all Christians ; and this is the first
of them, ' Be ye therefore,' &c.
There are two things in the words
1. The precept, ' Be ye followers of God/ /jn^rjral, imitators or
followers of his example ; for no English word is of a larger extent.
They may be said to be followers of God who embrace the profession of
his name, or the religion which he hath established. There are fol
lowers by way of adherence, and followers by way of resemblance.
2. The argument to enforce it, which is intimated in the words, ' as
dear children.' There is the relation, reicva, and the love consequent
upon the relation, aycnrijTa, because ye are God's beloved children.
The doctrine is plain.
Doct. That Christians should endeavour to resemble God as near as
may be.
1. I shall show wherein we are to resemble God.
2. What provision God hath made for it.
3. I will prove it by reasons.
I. Wherein are we to resemble God ?
I answer The context seemeth to restrain it to one particular thing,
pardoning and forgiving the wrongs done us by others ; for it is said,
' therefore,' as inferring it out of what was spoken before ; and that is
what was said in Eph. iv. 32, ' Forgiving one another, as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' But it is usual to give general direc
tions upon particular occasions, and therefore we need not confine our
thoughts to that only ; and yet I will not enlarge the matter too much.
In scripture we are pressed to follow God in two things in holiness
and mercy ; as there is a twofold goodness of God, moral arid bene
ficial ; his moral goodness is holiness, his beneficial goodness is benignity
and mercy.; and in these two things are we pressed to follow him
chiefly.
170 SERMONS UPON KPHESIANS V. [SfiR. I.
1. As for his moral goodness and holiness : Phil. ii. 15, ' That ye
raay be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the
midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as
lights in the world/ Implying that God's children must be like their
Father, just and holy, doing wrong to none, but convincing the con
sciences of all of their sonship and adoption, or nearness to God. It
pleaseth God often to leave his people in the midst of the enemies of the
gospel, who will take occasion, by the uncircumspect carriage of believers,
to vomit out their spite and malice against it ; therefore Christians had
need be exemplary in holiness.
2. The other thing wherein we are called upon to imitate God is in
goodness to all, enemies not excepted : Mat. v. 44, 45, ' But I say unto
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them,
that hate you, and pray for them that despitef ully use you and perse
cute you ; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and unjust.' Meaning thereby, that you
yourselves will know or show yourselves to others to be children of your
Father. The more kind and merciful you are, the more you are like
him ; and ver. 48, ' Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect ; '
compared with Luke vi. 36, 'Be ye therefore merciful, as your heavenly
Father is merciful.' Which showeth that mercy is one of the great
divine perfections which we ought to imitate.
Well, then, let us now state the matter.
[1.] Negatively. This following and resembling of God standeth
not in his natural, but moral perfections. God doth not say, Be ye
strong, as I am strong, or, Be ye happy, as I am happy ; but, Be ye
holy, as I am holy, merciful, as I am merciful. Our loss by sin is more
in point of goodness than of power and knowledge. The devils
exceed us in the two last, in power and knowledge, but have nothing
of goodness. The impression of his goodness therefore is more neces
sary to us in our lapsed estate than of his knowledge and power.
God is mighty in power; therein we cannot imitate him, for we are
poor weak creatures, and shall be so till we arrive at the state of bless
edness and immortality; but he is rich in mercy, and glorious in
holiness ; in these things we must resemble him. He would teach us
that moral perfections must be preferred before natural ; it is better
to be wise than to be mighty, to be holy than to be wise. The bad
angels, that have lost their holiness, have kept their strength and
cunning. Nothing hath cost men dearer than striving to be like God
in greatness and power rather than in goodness, holiness, and truth.
It was Satan's temptation to our first parents : Gen. iii. 5, ' Ye shall
be as gods ; ' not in a blessed conformity, but in a cursed self-sufficiency.
Therefore let us take heed of the first ambition of man to affect to be
like God in power. It was the arrogancy of the king of Babylon to
say, Isa. xiv. 14, ' I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will
be like the Most High.' No, no ; moral excellences God would com
mend to us as deserving our best esteem from his own pattern.
[2.] Positively. The chiefest excellencies are
(1.) His holiness. So we are to imitate God, who is a pure and
holy being, and is also ' holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his
VER. 1.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 171
works/ Ps. cxlv. 17. So we must have a divine nature, and live and
walk in a godlike manner: 'Be holy in all manner of conversation;'
and live at the greatest distance from and abhorrence of sin as may be.
That God is holy, his laws show it, which are very pure ; his works-
show it, both internal on the heart of man : Eph. iv. 24, 'And that ye
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness.' The new man is created after God, and that causeth a
giving back. When sin is propounded to us, we cannot easily bring;
the heart to it : 1 John iii. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because
he is born of God.' By the seed of God he meaneth the nature of God,
or that grace he puts into us. So also his external works, his punishing:
sin, especially in his own children. His severity in punishing is seen
in the remarkable instances of his displeasure. Now we must hate
what God hateth, and love what God loveth ; for our nature doth
most sensibly bewray itself by its affections, both of choice and aver-
sation ; and in some measure we must have the same nature that God
hath.
(2.) His goodness ; for ' God is love/ 1 John iv. 8. He showeth his
benignity to all his creatures, but much more to us in our redemption
by Christ. It was well observed by (Ecolampadius in his lectures to*
the youth and children at Basil, that the ordinary pictures of God
and the devil were no good books to instruct children in the nature of
either. The truest representation that can be made of God would be-
to teach them what truth is, what love, mercy, and goodness is ; and
the truest picture of Satan would be to teach them the true characters,
of falsehood, malice, hatred, cruelty, envy. Well, then, we must imitate
God in goodness.
Two acts there are of God's goodness giving and forgiving.
(1st.) His giving, or bounty to all necessitous creatures, especially
mankind, especially in their great necessities of guilt and misery, in
providing so ample and suitable a remedy for them. Oh, what pity
should this stir up in us to the bodies and souls of men, and make us
ready to commiserate and do good to all, most especially to the house
hold of faith ! What hath God been doing on the theatre and stage
of the world for almost six thousand years, but doing good ? Acts xiv.
17, ' Nevertheless he left not himself without a witness, in that he did
good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our
hearts with food and gladness/ And is this your Father, and will you
not imitate him ? Surely goodness should be the very constitution of
our souls, and doing good the business of our lives.
(2d) Forgiving. Some works of God are to be believed, not imi
tated, as the creation of the world ; and some not only believed, but
imitated, as the forgiving of sins. Our wrongs done to God are
greater than the wrongs others do to us. Others owe us but pence,
and we owe God talents ; their debt to us is a hundred pence, and our
debt to God is ten thousand talents, Mat. xviii. 24, 28. A talent is an
hundred and eighty-seven pounds ten shillings. Now God freely for
gives all our offences ; therefore we must forgive freely, fully, heartily,
and that out of a sense of the Lord's kindness. However the world
deal with you, and behave themselves towards you, do not you follow
172 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SlfiR. I.
them to do the like ; for you are not to fashion yourselves according to
this world, Bora. xii. 2 ; but ' be ye followers of God, as dear children/
And therefore you are not to reward evil with evil, but to do good,
even to enemies. This is to be like God, at whose table all his enemies
are maintained, and without whom they cannot subsist one moment.
II. What provision God hath made that we may be followers of him.
1. He hath given us his word to stamp his image upon our souls.
We see much of his goodness in creation and providence, but not so
much as we do in his word ; nor in any part of his word so much as in
his gospel : 2 Cor. iv. 4, ' Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine upon them.' The image of God
is on Christ primarily, and then on his seed, which representeth Christ
to us, to beget holiness and love in us. God giveth his word, wherein
there is so much discovered both of his love and holiness. The impres
sion is according to the stamp. That which is hot communicateth heat ;
that which is cold, cold. Wit by communication causeth wit, and
common learning common learning. So an holy and comfortable doc
trine breedeth in us a spirit of holiness and goodness. There is much
in the objects we are commonly conversant about.
2. He hath given us the example of Christ, or God in our nature,
who came for this end and purpose, that we, who cannot fathom the
unsearchable depth of the godhead, might see the divine perfections
shining forth in the human nature of Christ, who was the character
and express image of his divine glory : Heb. i. 3, Christ was ' holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,' Heb. vii. 26. And Christ
came to represent the goodness of God, for he ' went about doing good,'
Acts x. 38. They that cannot directly look on the sun may see the
motion of it in a basin of water. To express an image, there must be
similitude or likeness, and a means of deduction or conveying the like
ness to us. Christ appeared in our nature to represent the amiableness
of God, and to teach us a life of holiness.
3. He hath given us his Spirit to change us into the likeness of
Christ : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' For an objective
cause will not work in us without some internal powerful cause to make
it effectual, and that is the Spirit. None else is able to renew us to the
image of God, there being such an averseness in man's heart, which
cannot be cured by our bare thoughts.
III. I prove the point by these reasons
1. This image of God was our primitive glory and excellency : Gen.
i. 26, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' This was
the ornament and crown of glory which God would put upon a crea
ture, which was his masterpiece, and the most excellent of all his
works. This made us amiable in the sight of God. In other creatures
there was a vestigium, a footprint, or a track of his wisdom, power,
and goodness ; but in man there was an image or resemblance of his
face. Now this was lost by sin ; but to have it restored and recovered
is the true glory of man, and the greatest excellency that we are
capable of.
2. This is the effect of our new creation and regeneration ; for it is
VER 1.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 173
said, 2 Peter i. 4, that to ' us are given exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these jou might be partakers of the divine nature;' that
is, have the image of God stamped upon us ; and so Christians might
again begin to look like God himself, and in some measure resemble
him in wisdom, goodness, and holiness. Nothing so like him as the
new creature.
3. This is that which we hope shall be completed in heaven, and
therefore it must be endeavoured here : 1 John iii. 2, ' We shall be
like him ; for we shall see him as he is ; ' and Ps. xvii. 15, ' When I
awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness ; ' that is, when I awake
out of the sleep of death. The heaven that we look for is such a vision
as maketh way for assimilation, and such an assimilation to God as
maketh way for complete satisfaction and blessedness in him. All sight
of God is transforming. That sight that we have of him in the gospel
mortifieth sin ; but that sight that we have of him in heaven nullifieth
sin, and causeth a more perfect resemblance of him and likeness to
him. And this must needs breed satisfaction, for beyond God there
is nothing to be sought after ; and if we be as God, so far as creatures
are capable, we must needs be completely happy. Well, then, since
we hope for this in heaven, the resemblance must be begun here ;
for God carrieth on his work by degrees, and doth dispose and
fit us for that estate which he will translate us into. If we expect
it hereafter, we must endeavour it now, and grow more like God every
day ; and the more we are so, the nearer we approach to our final per
fection ; as rivers widen themselves by degrees, till with a full mouth
they run into the ocean.
4. We must not omit the argument of the text, ' as dear children ; >
wherein two things are considerable (1.) The relation ; (2.) The love
that accompanieth it.
[1.] The relation. Ye are children. Children usually resemble their
parents, either by nature, in the lineaments of their face, or by institu
tion and education, in the quality of their minds. It may fail there,
but it always holdeth good here ; for none are God's children but those
that are like him. It may fail there through many intervening acci
dents ; they may neither be like their parents in the compass of their
face, or in their nature and feature, nor in their manners and virtues.
Many a worthy father may have a base degenerate child ; and it is
often observed that where there is an extraordinary excellency, there is
as great a defect in the next descendant ; as Solomon, who had so
great a measure of wisdom and understanding, had a weak-hearted
Kehoboam to his son. But it cannot fail here : if we be children of
God, there is a resemblance between him and us ; we will imitate our
Father ; for either the resemblance constituteth the relation, or else is
the necessary eifect of it. It constituteth it as we have a new being
and an holy nature from him by regeneration, before we have egovatav,
the right, power, and dignity of his children: John i. 12, 13, 'But as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name ; which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God/
And it is the effect of it, as we resemble him in our lives and actions :
1 Peter i. 14-16, 'As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
174 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SEB. I.
according to the former lusts in your ignorance ; but as he which hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it
is written, Be ye holy, as I am holy.' Arid presently, in the 17th verse,
* If ye call on the Father/ &c. Well, then, our adoption into God's
family calleth for a likeness between God and us. Good men may
beget children no way like them ; as under the law, though the father
was circumcised, yet the child was born uncircumcised ; they cannot
propagate grace. Yea, where we are more at liberty, we may adopt
children that may not answer expectation, but show themselves unthank
ful, and unworthy of favour ; for men cannot put a towardliness into
them. But God changeth and reneweth the heart, as well as adopteth.
Therefore there should be, and will be, such a conformity between God
and all his children that they plainly resemble him. I shall strengthen
the argument by this additional notion, that in morals, he is accounted
our father whom we imitate ; as Gen. iv. 20, Jabal is said to be ' the
father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle;' that
is, of all such as followed his course of life, whether they were lineally
descended from him, yea or no. And ver. 21, Jubal is said to be 'the
father of such as handle the harp and organ ; ' that is, the first inven
tor. So in matters spiritual, there are two sorts of children in the world,
the children of God and the children of the devil. The children of
God are such as imitate God, and the children of the devil are such as
have a satanical nature in them, and are like the devil : John viii. 44,
' Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ;
he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and the father of it.'
He is an envious, malicious, proud spirit, a cruel enemy of truth and
goodness, and whosoever imitateth him in this is a child of the devil ;
as the apostle calleth Elymas the sorcerer : Acts xiii. 10, ' Oh, full of
all subtilty and mischief, thou child of the devil, and enemy of all
righteousness ! ' On the other side, the children of God are such as are
influenced by God, and imitate God in all purity and goodness. Now
there should be a broad and manifest difference between the children
of God and of the devil, 1 John iii. 10; therefore as children be
followers of God.
2. The love that accompanieth and goeth along with this relation,
* As dear children.'
[1.] There was a great deal of love showed in giving us our new
nature in regeneration, and taking us into so near a relation to himself
as that of children : 1 John iii. 1 , ' Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God ! ' ' Behold ' serveth sometimes to excite our faith, that we may
believe the certainty of things so strange and unusual ; sometimes our
wonder and reverence, that we may consider the worth and value of
them. Be it for one end or other, surely it is a great grace and favour
that he would take such poor creatures into his family, that God will be
our own Father, and look upon us as his own children. All is from love,
great love, which we may admire, but cannot sufficiently express. Now
this love should beget love in us again ; we should love him and own him
as our Father ; and what will follow ? Love will beget studium imitandi,
and endeavour to be like him in benignity and holiness ; for we love
him not only as a good God, but as a holy God.
YfiR 1.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 17.5
Object. But you will say, If I knew that he did thus love me, and had
adopted me to this grace, this might the sooner be done. I answer.
(1.) He make th you the offer of this privilege, as great as it is, and
it is your fault if you do not apply it and make it your own. The terms
are gracious enough : John i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God.'
(2.) God hath a title to our dearest love before we can assure a title
to his choicest benefits. He made you out of nothing, provided a
saviour for you without your thought or asking, hath offered pardon
and life to all that will accept of it in and with Christ to gospel ends.
Now this should attract and draw our love to him. Our first motive
to love God is not the persuasion of his special love to us, but the
tendering of the new covenant, the offered happiness by Christ : 2 Cor.
v. 19, 20, ' To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed
to us the word of reconciliation. Now we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God.'
(3.) The more this prevaileth with you to endeavour to be like God,
the more you see you have an interest in his dearest love, and that he
is your Father, and you his children in the most comfortable sense ;
that is, that you not only desire, but are in possession of his fatherly
love : Horn. viii. 29, ' For whom he did foreknow, he also did predesti
nate to be conformed to the image of his Son.' Therefore at first you
must not ask questions, and put off your duty by scruples, but set to
the performance of it, and you will best get rid of them.
[2.] There is a great love and tenderness exercised towards those
that are in this relation. They are his ' dear children/ and they shall
know it by his fatherly dealing with them ; they are reconciled,
pardoned, and justified, and God is not severe upon their failings :
Mai. iii. 17, 'I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth
him.' They have his Spirit sent into their hearts, to keep afoot God's
interest there, and maintain the comfort of their adoption : Gal. iv. 6,
* And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' They are also under the
special care of his providence for protection and provision, especially
that all things may work together for their final perfection and happi
ness. Christians ! methinks it should melt your hearts to consider
how the dearness and tenderness of God's love is expressed in the gospel
towards his children. Now, then, shall not all this have a due impres
sion upon you ? Filial duty should answer fatherly love. Who should be
so ready to serve and please him as his dear children ? Yea, now we do
not press you so much to serve him as to be like him. There are duties
which signify inferiority and subjection, and we are not exempted from
them, but should readily perform what our Father calleth for in this
kind ; but there are other things which are our perfection, as wisdom,
holiness, goodness, and truth ; these advance our nature, do not depress
it, because it is godlike to excel in these things ; and this we now press
you to.
[3.] The more like to God we are, the more dear we are to him, and
the more amiable in his sight ; so that you are not only dilecti, but
176 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. I.
diligibiles, not only loved, but lovely, or fit to be loved ; for the Lord
taketh pleasure in his own image wrought by his Spirit in our hearts :
Ps. xi. 7, ' For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness ; his countenance
doth behold the upright ; ' Prov. xi. 20, ' But such as are upright in
their way are his delight ; ' 1 Peter iii. 4, ' A meek and quiet spirit is in
the sight of God of great price.' A holy creature is an object suited to the
complacency of his holiness. God doth delight in us as redeemed and
pardoned, for his own mercy endeareth us to him : ' Is not this a brand
plucked out of the burning ? ' Zech. iii. 2. But no one reason doth
exclude another. He doth delight in us also as sanctified ; that was
our primitive amiableness, and the loss of it was our state of enmity to
God, when he could take no pleasure in us. Therefore, the more we
recover the image and nature of God our heavenly Father, the dearer
we are to him. He had a benevolence, a good will, or pity to us in
our sins ; but his complacency in us is as we are renewed and sancti
fied ; yea, the more we are so, the dearer to him.
[4.] Our chief worship of God consists in imitation ; not in contem
plation or admiration only, or in bare praise and adoration, but in
imitation, when we study to be like him. Other things are necessary,
but they are means for this end, that there may be a greater conformity
between us and God, and so a communion with him. Other things
are good in themselves, but without this they are not accepted. For
instance, one great part of worship is to admire God, to which we are
often directed in scripture : ' Who is a God like unto thee ? ' This
admiration will break out into praise ; for when the heart is big with
thoughts, it cannot hold : Ps. L 23, ' He that offereth praise glorifieth
me.' It is questionless a great duty to praise God for his excellencies,
for how shall we be affected with things that we do not frequently
remember ? But yet there is something more to be done than to
wonder and praise, and that is to imitate ; and this is true religion, to
imitate what we worship. By the admiration and commemoration of
God, or by the acts of adoration in wonder and praise, there may be
some loose and inconstant effects left upon our hearts ; as to fear him,
when for the time we remember his greatness and justice ; or to have
some delight stirred in us for the present, when we remember his
goodness and mercy. But alas ! these transitory acts, though good in
their kind, yet are not to be compared with that impression of God
which becometh as a habit and holy nature in us, which is the constant
principle of holy spiritual operation. It is good to think of God often ;
particular thoughts have their use. It is good to speak of God, and
praise God often, not only for his benefits, but his excellencies. Keli-
gion lieth much in it. But all these acts are but means to this end,
that we may be like God, so far as is agreeable to our created state and
capacity, and so far as is necessary to our communion with him. If
you admire and approve of a good man, if you do not endeavour to
imitate him, you do not give him that respect which his virtues call
for. Translate the matter to God, and the same reason will hold
good. If you admire the perfections of his nature, praise him for his
excellencies, bless him for his benefits ; but the likeness of him is not
impressed upon your souls so as to become the constant principle of
your operations; you do indeed use the means in your way and
VEIL l.'J SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 177
manner, but you do not obtain the end. Shall I tell you by a plain
enumeration what I intend ? The knowledge of God is necessary to
rectify the world ; there it beginneth. The belief of what we know is
also necessary to beget true religion, for knowledge without faith
leaveth us but convinced infidels: Heb. xi. C, 'But without faith it is
impossible to please God ; for he that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a re warder of them that diligently seek
him.' But doth it rest there ? No ; we must esteem what we do
believe. David calleth God his ' exceeding joy,' Ps. xliii. 4. And
what further? We must praise what we esteem: Ps. Ixiii. 3, 'Be
cause thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.'
But must we rest there in worshipping and praising him ? No ; all
this leadeth to a further end, that there may be a likeness and resem
blance between God and us, that we be holy as he is holy, and merciful
as he is merciful ; otherwise our knowledge is but a cold form, our
faith but a dead opinion, our esteem is but a naked approbation, our
praise is but an empty compliment ; for how can we glorify God
heartily for such perfections as we like not, or have no mind unto our
selves, and of which we are capable, and should seek after ?
[5.] My last reason is, because we are appointed for this end, and
serve for this use, that wherever we come, we may call God to mind,
and bring him into remembrance with all those with whom we do con
verse. All creatures serve for this use, that they may represent God
to the thoughts of men by that life and being which they have. But
because this is a common thing, and not very apt in itself to awaken
the stupid world to any reverence and regard of God, as children cannot
be said to call their parents to the minds of others by eating and drink
ing, which are acts common to them, and the children of all other
parents, but by some special properties, wherein they resemble their
progenitors ; so though all creatures in their kind may represent God,
and awaken the thoughts of the drowsy world to remember him, yet
because this is generally overlooked, or doth very imperfectly discover
God, therefore he hath chosen out some among mankind that may
more expressly show forth his divine excellencies and perfections to
the world. And for this use serve the saints, who are his witnesses to
declare the truth and excellency of his being, and to alarm the con
sciences of a godless and wicked generation to remember God : 1 Peter
ii. 9, ' But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of
him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.'
What we read in the text ' the praises,' is in the margin ra? dperas,
the virtues of God. Now the virtues and praises of God are his divine
attributes, especially such as are communicable to men, as his wisdom,
justice, truth, holiness, mercy, goodness. Christians should show these
forth, and keep the world in awe of God by the majesty and beauty of
their conversations. Alas ! if we should speak well of God, it would
do the world little good as to the cure of their atheism and infidelity,
unless our deeds confess him as well as our words. What will the
world say ? They speak at a higher rate than we do ; but what is
there worthy, noble, and godlike in their conversations more than we
express ? Therefore you do not discharge your duty, and effectually
VOL. xix. M
178 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. L
represent God to the world, till you are followers of him ; nay, rather
you give them cause to doubt that all is sophistry and pretence, while
you pretend to a greater nearness to God, and show forth nothing like
him or worthy of him.
Use. Is to persuade us to be followers or imitators of God. Shall
God give us his word and works, and shall the Son of God come in
the likeness of men, and live under the same law we are bound to, and
shall not men make it their design to be every day more like God, and
to be such in the world as the Son of God was in the world ? Alas !
how uncomfortably else will you live, and with little honour to God,,
yea, apparently to his disgrace, when you are his children by profession,
and give an ill character of him to the world ! Now to this end
1. Get a due conception of God. Some have not a due apprehension
of the mercy of God, and entertain needless jealousies of him, as one
that watcheth all opportunities to destroy us, and will be severe to his
creatures. This is a blasphemy against his holy and gracious nature.
No ; Micah vii. 18, ' Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth
iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his
heritage ? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he .delighteth
in mercy.' Others conceit ill of his holiness, and so live securely in
their sins : Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an
one as thyself/ The gods of the heathen taught sin by their own
example ; their impure lives, recorded by the poets, were a great means,
to debauch the world. Augustine ad Nect. telleth us of a young man
that was enticed to wantonness by seeing a picture of Jupiter on the
wall committing adultery. Men could not sin so freely if they did
believe the holiness of God's nature, and his resolved displeasure against
sin and sinners. We think God like ourselves, and that he is more
indulgent to the impurities of men than is commonly believed, and so
transform God into an idol of our own fancy. These propagate their
ill conceits of God, while they pretend to be God's people, and yet walk
loosely. As the heathen gods are represented to be lascivious as goats,
drunken like swine, revengeful and furious like wolves and bears, and
so are a stain to the godhead, and lessened man's natural reverence of
the divine power and majesty ; so do evil Christians, if they be so,
pollute his name : Ezek. xxxvi. 20, ' And when they entered unto the
heathen, whither they went out, they profaned my holy name, when
they said to them, These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth
out of the land.'
2. Esteem these things as amiable. We can neither praise, nor
love, nor imitate, what we do not esteem. Is holiness the glory of
God ? and will you either scorn it in others, or neglect to get it your
selves ? Is justice and mercy good, a perfection in the divine nature ?
and will you get such a blot or blemish as to make no conscience of
them, of paying your debts, or doing good to the poor and needy ?
Fy ! f y ! change your religion, or walk more answerably. You talk
of being Christians, be good heathens first ; they had a conscience of
these things. There is a reflection on God when Christians allow
themselves in dissolute immoralities.
3. Desire God to change your natures, that you may bear the image
of the heavenly one, 1 Cor. xv. 49. We cannot follow God in our lives
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 179
till we are made partakers of the divine nature. Apply yourselves to
Christ in the use of his appointed means for the renewing of your
natures.
4. Bewail your imperfections, and come nearer to your pattern every
day : ' I press towards the mark,' Phil. iii. 14; and what is a Christian's
crtfCTro?, or mark ? Exact holiness as well as complete felicity. There
fore be constantly intent upon this business; it is not a thing that
must be left to chance, but it must be your great design, and the
purpose and daily business of your lives.
SERMON II.
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a siveet-smelling savour.
EPH. v. 2.
HEBE is the second direction for an holy life, ' To walk in love/ as
Christ hath given us an example. In the former verse he exhorteth
them to imitate God, in this, to imitate Christ.
In the words observe
First, The duty enforced, ' Walk in love.'
Secondly, The reason to enforce it, which is taken from the example
of Christ's love, ' As Christ also hath loved us.' Christ's love to us is
both a motive and a pattern.
1. A motive, because he hath loved us, and reconciled us to God.
2. A pattern, as he hath loved us. In some proportional degree
our love should answer his love. It is both ways propounded in scrip
ture. As a motive: 1 John iii. 16, ' Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he hath laid down his life for us ; and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren.' As a pattern : John xiii. 34, 'Love
one another, as I have loved you ; ' and John xv. 12, ' This is my com
mandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.' Now that
we may the better discern the force of this motive, and the completeness
of this pattern, let us see how the apostle representeth and setteth it
forth _to us, ' As Christ also hath loved us.' Observe here
[1.] The principle, 'As Christ also hath loved us.'
[2.] The act and instance of his love to us, 'And given himself
for us.'
[3.] The end and intent, ' For an offering and a sacrifice unto God/
[4.] The fruit and effect, ' For a sweet-smelling savour.'
Doct. That Christ showed so much love in giving himself for a pro
pitiatory sacrifice to God for us, that thereby all true Christians are
bound to walk in love.
1. Let me open the example and pattern which is here set before us.
2. Show you what it is to walk in love.
3. How we are bound to do so by the example of Christ's love.
I. To open the example here set before us. And there I begin
180 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SlTt. II.
1. With the principle, ' Christ also loved us.' That was it which
moved and inclined him to so strange an undertaking as to die for our
sins. Christ's coming into the world for our redemption is sometimes
made an act of obedience, and sometimes an act of love ; of obedience
to God, and love to us. Of obedience to God : Rom. v. 19, ' By the
obedience of one many shall be made righteous.' There his whole
undertaking, or what he did, living and dying, is called obedience. So
Phil. ii. 7, ' He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.'
At other times it is made an act of love : Gal. ii. 20, ' Who loved me,
and gave himself for me ; ' Rev. i. 5, ' Unto him who loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood.' He thought no price too
dear for our salvation. Now these two do not clash the one with the
other. It doth not cease to be an act of obedience because it is an act
of love, nor to be an act of love because it is an act of obedience. Christ
hath reconciled this matter to our thoughts by his own words : John
x. 18, ' No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again ; this com
mandment have I received of my Father.' Christ was a free agent ;
this work was not forced upon him, but he yielded to it by a voluntary
dispensation, or upon agreement, in obedience to his Father ; and so at
the same time he commendeth his love to sinners, and obeyeth the will
of God in the discharge of his office. This was then the principle or
internal moving cause.
2. The act, ' He gave himself for us.' Where you have the giver,
the gift, and the parties interested.
[1.] The giver, Christ. He voluntarily first assumed a body, and
then parted with his life for this use.
[2.] The gift was himself. And both put together show that Christ
was both priest and sacrifice ; as God the priest, as man the sacrifice :
Heb. ix. 14, ' He offered up himself to God through the eternal Spirit.'
"Under the law the priests and the sacrifices were distinct ; but our Lord
Jesus was both the priest offering and the sacrifice offered. In his
person he was the priest offering, and his human nature was the thing
offered. Every priest must have somewhat to offer ; and when the
great high priest comes, he must offer something beyond what was
offered before, that the worthiness of the sacrifice and the dignity of the
priest may suit and well agree together. What did Christ then offer?
Heb. x. 5, ' When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and
offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me.' And
therefore it is added, Heb. x. 10, ' We are sanctified through the offer
ing of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'* So that he gave himself,
his body, his flesh, for the life of the world, John vi. 51.
[3.] The parties interested, ' for us.' It was for our sake, that God
might pardon our sins, and bring about our salvation in a way most
convenient for God's glory and our peace. Now Christ's death was a
proper and convenient means (1.) To demonstrate God's justice and
holiness, that he doth hate sin, and will certainly punish it, if it be not
taken away in the manner God hath prescribed in his new covenant
founded in the death of Christ : Rom. iii. 25, * Whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins. (2.) To vindicate the honour
VER. 2.]
SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V.
181
of his government and law. God's authority was violated by man's
transgression ; his law was holy and just, and our obedience reasonable.
Now to keep up his authority, God would not dispense with the penalties
of his law till Christ died for us : Gal. iv. 4, 5, ' But when the fulness
of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.' (3.) To be
a warning to sinners, not to sin presumptuously, and slight and despise
the majesty of God : Rom. viii. 3, ' God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.' God
hath put a brand upon sin. (4.) To declare the greatness of his love
to us, in procuring our pardon and life at so dear a rate : 1 John iv.
10, ' Herein is love ; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.'
3. The end, set forth by two notions, ' An offering and a sacrifice to
God/ The first word, Trpoatyopa, is a general word for anything offered
to God ; Ova-ia, sacrifice, the other word, is more limited, for all the
offerings were not called sacrifices. Or, if you will, take the distinction
between these two words thus. ' Offering ' implieth things without life,
and ' sacrifice' referreth to living creatures. The one referreth to the
fruits of the earth that were offered to God, and the other to beasts that
were slain ; but whatever was offered to God was to be consumed, even
such things as were destitute of life, as the meat-offering was to be
burnt with fire, Lev. ii. 1, 2. Living creatures were to be killed, and
the blood offered upon the altar ; for the apostle telleth us, Heb. ix.
22, 'Without shedding of blood there is no remission.' We must
understand the blood of some living thing that was sacrificed for free
ing a person from guilt and obligation to punishment. Well, then,
all these things presignified Christ's death and bloody sufferings; 'For
he gave himself to be an offering and sacrifice to God/
This notion puts us in mind of several things.
[1.] Of our misery ; for we have sins whereby we are liable to death,
otherwise what needed there a sacrifice to be offered for us ? There
is no need of a reconciliation where there is no breach, nor a propitia
tion where there is no offence, nor of a sacrifice where there is no sin
to be expiated and taken away.
[2.] It puts us in mind of the mercy of God in Christ, who gave his
Son for us, not only to be the high priest of our profession, but also to
be our sacrifice : Kom. iii. 25, ' Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood/
[3.] It puts us in mind of the manner of our redemption, by a sin-
offering, or a propitiatory sacrifice : Isa. liii. 10, ' When he shall make
his soul an offering for sin ; ' 2 Cor. v. 21, ' He was made sin for us/
Before sin can be taken away, there must be a propitiatory sacrifice,
and such as God will accept as a full satisfaction for sin, so that he is
fully content ; and as to a sacrifice and suffering for sin, there
needeth to be no more done. Well, then, here is the true notion of
Christ's death, that it is a mediatorial sacrifice, not a thank-offering,
but a sin-offering made by Christ, by his condescending to a shameful
accursed death for our sakes.
4. The efficacy of this sacrifice is intimated in the last words, et?
, ' for a sweet-smelling savour/ The scripture speaketh
182 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiB. II.
of God after the manner of men. Now men are delighted with sweet
odours; therefore, to show the satisfaction God took in the propitiatory
sacrifices offered to him, they are represented in scripture as a sweet
odour to him; as in the sacrifices of Noah it is said, Gen. viii. 21, 'And
the Lord smelled a sweet savour ; ' in the Hebrew it is 'a savour of
rest.' So Lev. i. 9, ' An offering made by fire, of a sweet savour to the
Lord ; ' which cannot be meant of nidor, or the fulsome smoke of
burnt flesh, but must be understood metaphorically, of God's gracious
acceptation of the required duties. So proportionably we may conceive
of this meritorious and acceptable sacrifice of Jesus Christ. A sweet
savour refresheth, comforteth, and quieteth the sense when it is dis
turbed and offended with an ill scent ; so this sacrifice pleased God,
and appeased his wrath towards us. God was offended by our sins,
and his wrath is pacified by Christ's sacrifice or dying for us, as the
disturbed sense is quieted and appeased by a good savour. But we
need not labour so much about the phrase as about the thing.
To clear it, that God is well pleased with Christ's offering up himself
for us, I prove it
{!.] From the dignity of his person : Acts xx. 28, ' Which he hath
purchased with his own blood.' It was the blood of God ; the eternal
Word was made flesh out of love to sinful man, and assumed this flesh
into the unity of his person, as we reckon the fruit of the graft to the
stock ; and so we call it ' the blood of God.' Therefore, of what rare
virtue, causality, and influence must that sacrifice be which was made
of the body and blood of Christ, who was God ? He was the highest
and greatest priest that ever could be, and he offered the best and
greatest sacrifice that ever was, a sacrifice of an infinite dignity and
value, even that flesh and blood which was assumed into his own person,
the dignity of which added an infinite value and price to it.
[2.] From the merit of his obedience. Christ's suffering death for
the sin of man, upon the command of his Father, was the noblest piece
of service, and the highest degree of obedience that ever was or could
be performed to God by man or angels. There was in it so much love
to God, and pity to man, so much self-denial, humility, and patience,
such resignation of himself to God, who appointed him to be the
redeemer of mankind, and to do this great service for them, that it is
impossible it can be paralleled. That it was an evident act of obedience,
I showed before ; he was obedient to the death ; his death was an act
of the greatest humility, charity, patience, faith, obedience. What
would you have more to increase the value of the merit ?
[3.] The greatness of his sufferings. If he suffered the punishment
which sin had made our due, nothing could be added to pacify the
wrath of God. The punishment of the sinner is either of loss or pain,
the desertion or the curse ; and therefore he is said to ' bear our griefs,
and to carry our sorrows, and to be wounded for our iniquities/ Isa. liii.
4. 5 ; ' He was made sin for us ; ' that is, penally handled, and died
for us, 2 Cor. v. 21 ; ' He was made a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 13. Thus
roundly doth the scripture express it : ' God spared not his own Son,
but delivered him up for us all,' Rom. viii. 32. He put him to grief,
not out of hatred to him, but love to our salvation. Hence came those
agonies of Christ, and prayers, and tears, and strong cries, Heb. v. 7.
Now these things do all increase the value of the sacrifice.
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 183
[4.] God hath declared himself satisfied, and hath approved the
sacrifice which he offered for us ; and therefore our sin cannot make
us loathsome and unsavoury to God, and stir up his wrath against us,
but that we have ground of hope, yea, of sure confidence, that he hath
smelled a sweet savour of rest, and his wrath is appeased, and that he
hath accepted the sacrifice offered by our redeemer. There is no more
necessary for paying the price and ransom for our souls ; for God, the
most just judge, would not accept of an imperfect satisfaction, or give
testimony that he was well pleased with it.
But how do we know that God hath accepted it ? Partly by Christ's
rising from the dead, which is not only an evidence of the truth and
dignity of his person, but of the fulness of his ransom, and perfectness
of his satisfaction ; for would a just judge deliver a debtor or his surety
from prison unless full payment had been made ? Would God, who is
the just judge of the world, who had appointed Christ to die for our
sins, raise him from the dead if he had not done his work ? Christ's
resurrection is expressed in scripture as the letting our surety out of
prison : Isa. liii. 8, ' He was taken from prison, and from judgment;'
Acts ii. 24, ' Whom God hath raised up, and loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.' He hath
loosed the bands of the grave : Heb. xiii. 20, ' Now the God of peace,
that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ,' &c. ; as the
apostles would not come forth, but were solemnly brought forth by the
magistrates, Acts xvi. 28, 29. And partly because he was not only
raised from the dead, but ascended into heaven with glory and honour :
1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Received up into glory.' He was not taken out of prison
only, but rewarded, which still showeth that his work is perfected.
Partly because, upon the account of his full satisfaction, he had made
a covenant wherein he hath offered to the world reconciliation with
God, and the everlasting fruition of him in glory upon gracious terms :
Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.' The
legal exclusion is taken off; remission of sins is the first gift, and
blessedness the second : Acts xxvi. 18, ' That they may receive forgive
ness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified.' And
partly also because he hath procured the Spirit whereby this covenant
may be attested and made effectual: Acts ii. 33, 'Therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the
promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see
and hear ; ' Acts v. 32, ' And ye are witnesses of these things, and so
also is the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.'
All these are assurances to the world that their peace is made, so far
as a sacrifice is needful to make it, and that God -is well pleased with
what he hath done for the redemption of mankind.
II. The nature of the duty thence inferred, or what it is to ' walk in
love.' To walk in love signifieth not one act or two, but the perpetual
tenor of our lives ; our whole life should be an exercise of love.
But what love doth he mean? Either love to God and Christ, or
-love to men ? I answer I cannot exclude the former totally, for
these reasons
1. Love to men is of little worth unless it flow from love to God. And
the apostle John, who placeth so much weight on our love to the
184 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. II.
brethren, showeth that this evidence must be resolved into an higher:
1 John v. 2, ' By this we know that we love the children of God, when
we love God, and keep his commandments/ So that our love to the
people of God will not argue our sincerity unless it be founded and
rooted in our sincere love to God, and a single evidence will not estab
lish our comfort.
2. Because it is a genuine product of this great love of Christ to us:
1 John iv. 19, 'We love him because he loved us first.' The first
impression of the love of Christ upon our hearts begets a love to God
again. To God himself ; we beat back his own beam and flame upon
himself first, and then to all that belong to him.
Now for these reasons I dare not totally exclude this sense. I may
add a third
3. Because not only the direct improvement of the love of Christ,
but so much of the Christian life dependeth on the love of God, that it
should not be excluded when we are discoursing of it : 2 Cor. v. 14, 15,
'For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if
one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but unto him
that died for them, and rose again.' The sense of this love should
work in us certainly a great fervour of love to God, that may level and
direct all our actions to his glory, and make us study to please him.
Well, then, if we take it in this sense, how are we to walk in love ?
I answer
1. That love is to be at the bottom of all our actions and duties,
that our whole religion may be but an acting of love : 1 Cor. xvi. 14,
' Let all your things be done with charity.' If we pray, let us act the
seeking love ; if we praise God, let us act the delighting love ; if we
obey God, let us act the pleasing love. Whatever we do, let it be
influenced by love and gratitude, which is the life of the soul, and the
heart of our religion.
2. Let us walk in love, all will be nothing else ; but let us continue
constant to the death in the profession of the Christian faith ; for
vehement pure Christian love casteth out all fear in danger. If we
love Christ, we will run all hazards for his sake, make no scruple to
die or undergo any danger for Christ, thereby imitating the love of
Christ to us, like unto those in Rev. xii. 11, that 'loved not their lives
to the death.' When self-love is overcome by a greater love, men will
neither be persuaded nor frighted out of a love of themselves ; it must
be another more powerful love that must draw them from it, as one
nail driveth out another. Now this can be nothing else but the love
of God and of Christ, which if it be once shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost, we shall lay all things at Christ's feet, we shall suffer
all things, and endure all things, and give up self, and strength, and
time, and estate, and life itself for his glory. What is nearer to us
than ourselves ? and what will break the force of natural inclinations
but this great love ?
But the context seemeth to restrain this to the love of man, for it
hath a respect to the former precept and direction. Now then we
must inquire what it is to walk in love by the example of Christ's
dying, not for friends, but enemies, as all the world were to God when
he took their business in hand.
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 185
1. That there must be such au impression of the love of Christ
upon us, that love to mankind may be the very habit and constitution
of our souls. Love must dwell, and bear rule, and have dominion
in our hearts, before it can be expressed in our lives : Col. iii. 14,
' And above all things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfect-
ness.' This love to others, founded in Christ's love to us, and all
others, even his enemies, will cement the disagreeing parts of the world
together for common good, and keep them united to one another in an
indissolvable bond, much more perfectly than any other obligation can
do. But alas ! where shall we find this Christian charity, which is a
true transcript of Christ's love to us, even among God's people, to
God's people, who take little care of working together for the common
good, but employ our parts and abuse our esteem for grace to one
another's prejudice ?
2. That showing love to others should be the business of our lives,
and whatever we do towards them, we should do it in love, being as
diligent to promote their good as our own, and as tender of their
interests as'our own, and, in short, loving our neighbour as ourselves.
It is a hard lesson, but we must frame ourselves to learn it, or else it
will fare ill with us in the judgment ; for wilfully to break or neglect
any one of Christ's known commands is not consistent with sincerity.
Therefore we must live in this mutual love, and it must be a Christ-
like love, patient and humble, and diligent to procure and promote the
good of those whom we love. But moral things are best known by
their opposites. They that sin against it are
[1.] Self-seekers and self-pleasers, that are wholly taken up with
their own things : Phil. ii. 21, ' For all seek their own, not the things
which are Jesus Christ's.' These cannot bear with others, because they
wholly seek their own contentments, and not another's good; whereas,
if they did love others as themselves, as they would do no hurt to
others, so they should bear with their infirmities ; for ' Charity beareth
all things,' 1 Cor. xiii. 7. There is none of us but can bear with a great
many faults in ourselves, and would be borne with in them by others
also. Use the same measure in buying and selling.
[2.] Those that are proud and contentious, and full of strife for
nothing ; whereas if we did cherish that humility and modesty which
becometh people conscious to so many infirmities as we are, we should
not break love for a little disrespect. A proud man sets too high a
price and value upon himself, and is angry when others will not come
up to his price, and value him so inordinately as he doth himself:
Prov. xiii. 10, 'Only by pride cometh contention ; but with the
well-advised is wisdom.' The modest and humble have no great
expectations, are content that others go before them ; but the proud
take it ill that all others entertain not their conceits of themselves ;
they expect so much, that none about them can answer their expecta
tions ; therefore pride is the great incendiary of the world in societies,
churches, families, and neighbourhood.
[3.] Worldly men. Greedy dogs full out about the carrion, which
every one desirelh to feed on, and would exclude others. The whole
world is not wide enough for ambitious and covetous men ; they enlarge
their desires, and would have what another hath ; and therefore fall
186 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [&ER. II.
out with, them, because they would shine alone in the earth : Isa. v. 8,
' Woe unto them that join house to house, and lay field to field, till
there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the
earth.'
[4.] Impatient men ; for passionate persons are like fine glasses,
broken as soon as touched ; the least injury is enough to break them
all in pieces. But is this to be like Christ, who was meek, and lowly,
and endured the contradiction of sinners, and has bidden us to learn of
him ? Mat. xi. 29, ' Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I
am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest to your souls.'
[5.] The lazy and backward to do good : 2 Thes. iii. 13, ' But ye,
brethren, be not weary in well-doing.' A Christian's daily business is
to promote the good of others, and to seek out all occasions of useful
ness. If a heathen could say, Diem perdidi I have lost a day, surely
a Christian should count that day lost in which he hath not done some
good.
III. I come now to show you how we are bound to do so by the
example of Christ's love. And here I shall show you that it is both a
motive and a pattern.
1. It is a motive to excite us to love him, because the great thing
that is remarkable in Christ's giving himself as a sacrifice for us is
love.
You may conceive it by these considerations
[1.] To suffer for another is more than to do or act for him, for
therein is more self-denial. In doing a good turn for another, we only
bestow our labour ; but in suffering for them, we hazard our interest,
yea, life and limb ; therefore we more oblige others when we are will
ing to incur damage for them, than in doing an act of kindness for
them. The soldier that held up to Augustus the stump of his arm,
having lost his hand in battle for him, thought that action had much
of merit and obligation in it ; and Peter thought he expressed great
love to Christ when he told him, John xiii. 37, ' I will lay down my
life for thy sake.' Oh, then what love hath Christ showed us, who
would become not only a surety, but a sacrifice for our sake !
[2.] To suffer death for another is the greatest obligation that we
an put upon him : John xv. 13, ' Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' This is the greatest
evidence that can be ; he speaketh this to make his example the more
binding. This depriveth us of a capacity to enjoy those for whom we
suffer.
[3.] This is the highest expression of love to friends, but Christ did
it for enemies, for the ungodly sinful world : Horn. v. 7, 8, ' For
scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die ; but God commendeth his love
towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'
Here are three sorts of men, the wicked, the righteous, or a man of a
rigid innocency, and the good and bountiful man ; but now we were
in the lowest class.
[4.] To suffer for the faults of another is the greatest condescension.
A naughty man may be innocent in some cases, and it is much to die
for him out of love to justice, and to maintain his innocency ; but for
VER. 2.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 187
Christ to 'be made sin for us, who knew no sin/ 2 Cor. v. 21, to be
reckoned or numbered among transgressors, this is inestimable love.
[5.] Because this is not fit to be done among mankind, that the
innocent should suffer capital punishment for the nocent. God would
represent this in the beasts, to show his sovereignty over them, where
the innocent creature was set apart for this use to bear man's sin :
Lev. xvi. 21, 22, ' And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head
of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children
of Israel, and all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a
fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all
their iniquities into a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat
in the wilderness.' And the blood of the beast was given on God's
altar to make atonement : Lev. xvii. 6, ' And the priest shall sprinkle
the blood upon the altar of the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the Lord.'
This was thoroughly accomplished in our Redeemer : Dan. ix. 26,
' The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself ; ' Isa. liii. 4-6,
* Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows ; and he was
wounded for our transgressions, and was bruised for our iniquities ; and
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we
are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own
way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all ; '
1 Peter iii. 18, { He died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God.' This was the wonderful act of God's grace to find such a
strange and unusual sacrifice for us.
[6.] That he should suffer to such ends, or that the consequent
benefits should be so great, as the remission of sins and eternal life.
Remission of sin we have Mat. xxvi. 28, ' For this is my blood of the
new testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins.' The
second, eternal life, we have Heb. v. 9, ' He became the author of
eternal salvation to them that obey him.' Both together we have
Heb. x. 14, ' For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that
are sanctified.' Sin is the greatest evil, the makebate or cause of
difference between us and God, and eternal life is the greatest happi
ness that we are capable of.
[7.] That, with respect to the end, God and Christ took such pleasure
in it : Isa. liii. 10, ' It pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put
him to grief ; ' John x. 17, ' Therefore doth my Father love me, because
I lay down my life.' The Father is so well pleased with the reconcilia
tion of lost sinners, that he loveth Christ for undertaking and perform
ing it. So Christ was satisfied : Isa. liii. 11, 'He shall see of the tra
vail of his soul, and be satisfied.' He solaced himself with the
thoughts of it : Prov. viii. 31, ' Eejoicing in the habitable parts of the
earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.' He delighted to
appear in human shape, and longed for its accomplishment, and patiently
submitted to it.
2. It is a pattern which we should imitate.
[1.] In the reality of it : 1 John iii. 18, ' Let us not love in word,
neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.' As Christ did not: Gal.
i. 4, ' He gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil world.'
188 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. SER. II,
[2.] In the freeness of it, He was not induced to it by any overture
from us, but by his own love only : Eph. v. 25, ' Christ also loved the
church, and gave himself for it.'
[3.] In the constancy of it. He was not discouraged when it came
to push of pike : John xiii. 1, ' Having loved his own that were in the
world, he loved them to the end.'
[4.] In the self-denial and condescension of it: Mat. xx. 28, ' Even
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give his life a ransom for many.' He chose not a life of pomp and
ease, not a delightful flesh- pi easing course of life, but a mean and low
estate, and ignominious sufferings. Ease and stateliness and lordly pre
eminence should be far from the disciples of Christ. He came not in
the pomp and equipage of an earthly prince. Strife for pre-eminence
little becometh us, but who shall be most useful to bring home most
souls to God. But because we cannot pursue all, two things I shall
commend to you from this love of Christ
(1.) The kind of the love; it was a love to souls. If Christ gave
himself as a propitiatory sacrifice to reconcile and recover them to God,
we should have a higher value and esteem for them. Before Christ
died, men could not sufficiently understand of what precious account
souls were ; but now, unless we shut our eyes, we may see plainly that
the redemption of the soul is precious : Ps. xlix. 8, ' The redemption
of the soul is precious, and ceaseth for ever.' If a man find a pearl of
great price, and, not knowing what it is, maketh no more esteem of it
than of a piece of glass or a common bead, and is ready to sell it for
a few pence, but upon the offer of it to a skilful lapidary, who at
first sight biddeth two or three thousand crowns for it, would he not
change his mind, and think this jewel is of greater value than he took
it to be? So here ; man knows not the value of the soul, and did not
greatly set by it. Adam lost his own soul and the souls of all his
posterity for an apple, and we sell the birthright for a mess of pottage ;
but when Christ, who made souls, and knoweth the value of them,
came to recover lost souls, he gave himself for us ; hereby he taught
us to set a higher price upon them, for nothing but his precious blood
could redeem them ; and therefore we should not despise our own souls,
so as to forfeit them for base unworthy trifles. So for the souls of others ;
if any of us be induced to show charity to the bodies of others, but
little regard their souls, I should think ill of them. We pity a man
that should be famished to death for want of what we can give him,
but we do not pity a man that is going to hell, and is ready to perish
eternally. There is little of the bowels of Christ found among most
chrislians. Or if we pity them, and wish it were otherwise with them,
yet we do little or nothing to pull them out of the fire ; yea, though
many times they are nearly related to us, we are loath sometimes to be
at the trouble of a little serious exhortation, or hearty and Christian
advice ; the ease of the flesh checketh us. Is this to walk in love as
Christ loved us ? Or it may be we will not venture the hazard of a
scorn or mock, or the displeasure of a carnal friend. Christ gave up
himself and all the interests of that life he had assumed for the good
of souls. We shall never do any great things, nor honour God in our
relations, till we have a love to souls fixed in our hearts, till we have
YER. 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 189
the bowels of Christ : Phil. i. 8, ' For God is my record how greatly I
long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.' Christ thought the
gain of souls recompense enough for his ignominious death.
(2.) The next thing is the greatness and degree of this love. Let
us be ready to lay down our lives for the church of God : 1 John iii.
16, ' Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life
for us ; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.' We must
imitate Christ in this, in his dying to reduce men to God. It is not
left arbitrary ; we must and ought.
(Is/.) There must be a venturing arid hazarding life. That may be
done in many cases, as for the conversion of the carnal world, in which
we may carry our lives in our hands : Phil. ii. 17, ' Yea, and if I be
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all.' Or though it involve you in great trouble to relieve their
necessities, visit them in prison ; or to rescue the life of another from
an assassin, or when another is assaulted by thieves and ruffians, to
prevent murder.
(2c?.) There must be certain death ; as when a single person dies for
a community, a private person for a more public or more useful person,
as a subject to save his prince ; or when we lose a temporal good for
another's eternal good ; as the apostle : Rom. ix. 1-3, ' I say the truth
in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
Ghost, that I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my heart ;
for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh.' Some will not hazard
a scorn, a check, or frown, or scoff for them.
Use I. This love of Christ must be firmly believed. Let us not
look on the death of Christ only as a tragical story and the sufferings
of an innocent person, or only believe the history of his death ; but let
us believe that he died a sacrifice for us, out of love to our souls, to
redeem us to God, and save us from wrath.
Use 2. It must be closely applied for our good and benefit, till we
are duly affected with it, so as to make suitable returns to God ; partly
by devoting ourselves to him : Rom. xii. 1, 'I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
eacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service;'
and partly by rendering our thank-offerings of charity towards others :
Heb. xiii. 17, ' But to do good, and to communicate, forget not, for
with such sacrifices God is well pleased.'
SERMON III.
But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not "be once
named among you, as becometh saints. EPH. v. 3.
IN the words observe
1. The things forbidden. Three sins are enumerated, ' Fornication,'
and ' All uncleanness,' and ' Covetousness.'
190 SEKMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [StfR. III.
2. The manner and degree of forbidding, 'Let them not be once named
among you.' Christians should have such a perfect abhorrence for
these things, that they should be as things unknown and unheard of
in the church.
3. The reason of this prohibition, ' As becometh saints.'
Doct. That there lieth a great obligation on Christians to keep them
selves at the greatest distance from, and abhorrence of, all impurity
and unclean ness.
1. I shall fix the due sense of the words.
2. Show what purity and cleanness of heart belongeth to Christians.
3. Show the special impurity that there is in these kind of sins.
I. To fix the sense. The things forbidden are expressed by three
words
1. 'Fornication,' which signifieth the unchastity of persons in a
single or unmarried estate, which was looked upon among the gentiles
as a thing indifferent, and no sin ; and some of the Christians newly
crept out of gentilism thought it a light and venial fault, as at Corinth,
1 Cor. vi. from ver. 12 to the end. They thought that as eating all sorts
of meat without distinction was lawful, so promiscuous copulation. To
disprove this evil- conceit, the apostle answereth by way of concession
concerning meats, by way of correction concerning fornication, ver. 13.
[1.] By way of concession concerning meats : 'Meat is for the belly,
and the belly is for meats ; but God shall destroy both it and them ; '
that is to say, it is true that meats were made to fill the belly, and the
belly to receive meats for the sustentation of life during the present
state ; but God will cause both the need and the use to cease in the
life of glory.
[2.] By way of correction concerning fornication.
(1.) But now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and
the Lord for the body ; namely, the end and use of the body is to serve
the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. The Lord Jesus is also Lord
of the body, seeing he gave himself not only for the redemption of the
soul, but of the body also, and will raise it up at the last day, ver. 14 ;
therefore it is to be disposed of according to his will. Therefore forni
cation is contrary to the use of the body, as the body is for the Lord ;
and contrary to the dignity of the body, who died that it may be
raised again in glory.
(2.) Another argument is from our union with Christ. The bodies
of the faithful are a part of his mystical body, and therefore must be
used with reverence, and possessed in sanctification and honour ; not
given to an harlot, but reserved for Christ. He proveth the argument
on both parts : he that is joined to an harlot maketh himself one with
an harlot ; and he that is joined with Christ becometh one with Christ :
' He that is joined to an harlot is one flesh ; ' namely, that conjunction
is carnal and bodily. But by way of direct antithesis or opposition he
telleth us, that ' he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit ; ' namely,
this conjunction is holy and spiritual. This . argument is urged
ver. 15-17. Now this consideration should have great force upon
Christians, because unclean commixtures and embraces do not become
them that profess to have union with Christ ; for no two things can be
more contrary and unsuitable than to make ourselves one with an harlot
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 191
and one with Christ ; one with an harlot, which God hath so severely
prohibited, and one with Christ, which God hath so solemnly instituted;
yea, the things themselves are unsociable, carnal base pleasures and
spiritual delights.
(3.) His third argument is taken from the dignity of the body, the
dignity to which God hath advanced it, or the honour he hath put
upon the bodies of Christians, which is to be the temples of the Holy
Ghost : ver. 19, ' What ! know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God ? ' You are
set apart for this holy use, that the Spirit may govern and employ
your bodies for the glory of God. So fornication is a polluting of the
temple of God. Shall the temple of the Holy Ghost be turned into a
swine's-sty ? It is dangerous to pollute holy things, to defile God's
dwelling-place, or to bring base lusts into the special palace of God's
residence ; therefore you are not to use your bodies as you please, not
for an unclean, but holy use.
(4.) His last argument is from Christ's right: ver. 19, 20, 'Ye are
not your own, ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in
your body and in your spirit, which are God's.' Christ hath a right
to both, and therefore both must be used for him, and according to his
direction. Neither are our souls nor our bodies at liberty that we
may use them as we please. Therefore to use the body for fornication
is sacrilege, and a robbing Christ of his right ; he is Lord of both.
Let me now add some natural arguments against fornication, that
those who will not be drawn from this carnality by scripture may yet
be moved by nature. Our submission to God's authority, as having
forbidden it in his law, and Christian or gospel arguments, make the
restraint less difficult or rigorous ; but if that will not do, nature itself
will teach us that, if promiscuous lusts should be allowed, man would
in nothing differ from the beasts, and such disorders would grow in
the world as would make our abode unsafe therein. For what with
rapes and violence, and frequent forsakings on man's part, and feminine
revenge and impatiences on the woman's part, there would be no quiet
and safe living one with another ; and all interests and possessions
would be disturbed, for none could know in such a profane mixture
what children were their own ; all love to posterity would be dimin
ished, and consequently due education hindered, that there could not
be a greater plague to mankind than this brutish and promiscuous
liberty.
2. The next word is, ' All uncleanness ; ' which is a more general
word than fornication, for it implieth also adultery and filthiness
between married persons, as well as simple fornication ; yea, incest
and all brutish pleasures, which the lawless minds of men affect.
There is uncleanness by inordinate desires : Mat. v. 28, ' Whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart.' In the eyes, by lascivious looks: 2 Peter
ii. 14, 'Having eyes full of adultery.' In the tongue, by filthy and
rotten speech : Eph. v. 4, ' Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor
jesting, which are not convenient.' In the life and conversation, by
all manner of noisome and foul practices which lust puts us upon ; of
whatsoever kind they be, or by whatsoever name they be called. In
192 SERMONS Ul'ON EPHESIAN3 V. [SfiR. III.
such sins, modesty forbiddeth us to be too curious, or to make a par
ticular dissection, or cutting up the branches and parts of them ; there
fore all is wrapt up in this general expression, 'And all uncleanness.'
3. The next word is ' Covetousness/ But how cometh this to be put
among the nefanda, the things not to be named ? I answer
[1.] The word is 7r\eove^ia, or immoderate desire ; take it in the
obvious sense for love to riches, or inordinate desire of wealth ; it is a
base sin, and will make us act basely. We stroke it with a gentle
censure, but the scripture maketli other constructions of it, and always
useth to represent it as an odious and detestable thing : ' Filthy lucre/
1 Tim. iii. 3 ; Titus i. 7 ; 1 Peter v. 2. Omnis impuritas est ex
mixtura vilioris All impurity arises from the mixture of something
that is more base. To be addicted to it argueth a sordid or filthy frame
of spirit. It is abominable to God, and should be detestable to us.
[2.] I think it beareth here a more particular sense, and may be
rendered, 'inordinate lust or luxury;' for the word signifieth not only
a desire of money, but excessive and unnatural lusts ; and that notion
it clearly hath, Eph. iv. 19, ' They gave up themselves to work all
uncleanness ev 7r\eoi/em. with greediness.' Certainly it is some
thing that has affinity with uncleanness, and that is, acting it with
greediness.
Secondly, The manner and degree of forbidding, ' Let it not be once
named among you.' You will think this over-strict ; and how can it
be reproved if it be not named ? But let us consider the sense.
1. The apostle speaketh thus to express the height of detestation ;
for things that we utterly detest we will not name them ; as David
would not take the names of their idols into his lips, Ps. xvi. 4, to
express the great detestation he had of them. So the apostle here ; let
never these foul practices get the least admission among you ; or that
they should be so far from committing these things, that they should
riot name them, or think of them, without detestation and utter abhor
rence.
2. That which is villanous to be done is also vile to be spoken of :
ver. 12, ' It is a shame to speak of the things which are done of them
in secret ; ' and 1 Cor. v. 1, ' Such fornication as is not so much as
named among the gentiles, that one should have his father's wife ; '
that is, it was not a thing commonly practised among them, nor
spoken of without great abhorrence. We should abstain from the
needless mention of things detestable, lest we should reconcile them,
and familiarise them to our thoughts ; for vile things that are often
spoken of seem less odious, and affect the sense (being common) with
less horror then when strange. So that they are not to be named,
that is, not without need, nor without detestation. It were well if there
were no occasion to speak of them at all.
3. Some sins are more catching than others ; the very mention of
them may revive and stir the motions of them in an unmortified heart.
And uncleanness and fornication are of this nature, because they tend
immediately to please the flesh ; other sins more remotely. Now where
the fleshly mind and appetite are not subdued, what doth immediately
please the flesh doth more presently stir the motions of it at the very
mention, than what doth more remotely conduce to its satisfaction.
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPOX EPHESIANS v. 193
As the prophet taketh his similitude of condemning the idolatry of
Israel from adulterers, and expresseth it thus : Ezek. xxiii. 19, ' Yet she
multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her
youth;' as if the remembrance of former adulteries were a new snare
to her. And divines say, in the case of considering temptations, that
Ave may be fore-armed against them, that it is not so safe to a man to
consider the temptation of Joseph as the temptation of Peter, because
the consideration of the first may rather ensnare than fortify the mind.
AH this showeth that some sins, especially with some kind of tempers,
are more catching and apt to induce men to sin ; therefore the apostle
ssaith, ' Let it not be once named.'
4. There is a naming of these things which is very sinful, and that
two ways
[l.J When it is done in such a broad and coarse way, or nasty lan
guage, as doth rather invite sin than rebuke it. Immodest speech cometh
certainly from a vain and filthy heart, and showeth. the absence of the
fear of God : Mat. xii. 34, ' Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh.' Men have a beastly savour with them, and vent it in their
speech. As crows that are driven away from the carrion love to remain
within the scent, so many whom shame restraineth, or whom age hath
disabled to commit, do not act these sins, yet love to talk and discourse
of them, and that with a gust and relish ; and by their way of naming
these things discover their temper. This is that a-aTrpos \6<yos, that
' rotten communication,' which the apostle reproveth : Eph. iv. 29, ' Let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.'
Obscene and corrupt discourse cometh from a rotten heart, as un
savoury breath doth from putrid lungs. This fire is kindled in their
hearts, and the sparks fly abroad in their language and discourse to set
others on burning. Therefore well might the apostle say, ' Let not these
things be once named/ for we propagate our taint by our speech, and
seek to make the hearers like ourselves : 1 Cor. xv. 33, ' Be not deceived ;
evil communication corrupts good manners.' The talking of these things
doth almost debauch the manners of the world, as well as the acting
of them.
[2.] When we seek to palliate foul deeds with handsome and plau
sible names, and so speak of these things with allowance and extenuation,
and not with extreme detestation. Christians must abhor the mention
ing of such filthy sins in other manner than will induce the hearers to
abhor them. Look, as calling drunken meetings good fellowship cor
rupts and taints the manners of the world, and doth induce men to a
better opinion of the communion of sinners in this brutish way than it
deserves, as if it maintained amity and love, so the dressing up of ugly
sins in handsome and plausible names doth not beget such an abhor
rence of them as Christianity would enforce. As where we call lawless
liberty platonic love ; or fornication, marriage in conscience ; or the
adopting or taking in of a strumpet into the rights of the lawful wife,
courtship, or having a mistress ; this is but the invention of poor
deluded sinners to cheat themselves and the world, and to varnish a
filthy thing with a cleanly notion, that it may go down the more glib
with ourselves and others. How much better is it to speak as the word of
God speaketh ? ' An whore is a deep ditch ; and he that is abhorred
VOL. XIX. N
194 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SEIl. III.
of the Lord falleth therein,' Prov. xxii. 14; 'For an whore is a deep
ditch, and a strange woman a narrow pit,' Prov. xxiii. 27. This is
plain and open, and cautions men how they slip into such a foul ditch.
But sinners have a double deceit, they represent goodness and virtue
under horrid names, as astronomers call glorious stars by the names of
the bear, and the dragon's head, and the dragon's tail ; but they insin
uate vice with plausible names, that they may not consider how hateful
to God both their persons and their practices are ; and so keep the
greater guard upon themselves lest they incur his sore displeasure.
But let us take heed of adorning foul sins. The apostle saith, ' Let
them not be once named without detestation.'
Thirdly, The reason, ' As it becometh saints ; ' that is, Christians or
believers ; all of them are saints, or should be saints.
1. Some are so only by external dedication and profession ; as by
baptism they are set apart for God as a clean and holy people. None
enter into Christ's kingdom but those that are washed and cleansed
from sin : Acts xxii. 16, ' Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy
sins, calling on the name of the Lord.' And their baptismal vow
bindeth them to die unto sin, especially to the lust of uncleanness.
But all that have given up their names to Christ have not given up
themselves to Christ ; and those that do not renounce their baptism,
yet forget their baptism and the bond and obligation of it, 2 Peter i. 9.
They forget or do not mind that once they were washed in God's
laver. Surely there is an obligation upon them still to keep them
from fornication, adultery, and all manner of uncleanness, lest they
forfeit the name of saints : 1 Thes. iv. 7, ' For God hath not called us
to uncleanness, but to holiness.' If they renounced the flesh, they must
subdue and crucify the flesh chiefly in the grosser lusts, otherwise
their baptism will be a nullity as to their comfort and benefit by it,
yet not as to their judgment and punishment. Better never have been
baptized in that sense : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' For if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and over
come, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' In those
early times grown persons were baptized, and none were admitted to
it but upon some knowledge of Christ, and professed resolutions to
forsake the fiido-fMara, the pollutions of the world ; but if they relapse
again into them, the league and confederacy between Satan and their
flesh being never thoroughly dissolved, and wallow in the filthiness
they had renounced, better they had never meddled with religion. By
quitting holiness they forsake blessedness, and involve themselves in
the greater punishment. As they turn from the holy commandment,
they turn from the gracious promises. They do not dislike the happi
ness offered by Christ, but the seriousness of his religion ; so that
the privilege of betaking themselves to the way of Christ maketh their
guilt become the greater and more dangerous. Christian heathenism
is worse than bare heathenism at first. Now though we are born
Christians, yet the case is almost the same ; we do not renounce our
parents' act when we come to years of discretion, rather pretend to
stand to our baptismal vow and covenant, submit to the instructions
of the church, would take it ill not to be accounted Christians, own
the same creed and Bible that others do. But alas ! what will your
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 195
Christianity profit you if you live in all uncleanness, fornication, and
filthiness ? There are certain frailties incident to the best, but the
fjudafJiaTa Koa-pov, the pollutions of the world, these are spots that are
not as the spots of God's children.
2. Others are saints by internal regeneration, as sanctified and
renewed by the Holy Ghost : Titus iii. 5, ' Not by works of righteous
ness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,
by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.'
These have the effect of their baptism wrought in them. Now these
things are contrary to the disposition and spirit of saints, or to the holy,
new, and divine nature which is put into them. Nothing so opposite
to the spirit as the flesh ; and among all the lusts of the flesh, those
which have most turpitude in them, as the lusts of uncleanness. Hence
nature hath imprinted a shame upon them ; and conscience, till it be
debauched and seared, will never suffer men to live quietly and
securely in them. Now if bare nature thinketh it a stain and blemish
to us, much more the new nature, which checks those lusts, and bears
back as from something abhorrent and contrary to itself. If nature
blush at the sin, surely grace or the new nature should restrain it.'
II. What purity and cleanness of heart belongeth to Christians ? In
the scripture they are everywhere described by it : Ps. xviii. 18, ' With,
the pure thou wilt show thyself pure,' John xv. 3, ' Ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken to you ; ' Ps. Ixxiii. 1, ' Surely
God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart ; ' 2 Cor. vi.
17, 'Separate yourselves from the unclean thing, and I will receive
you ; ' and in other places. God being purity, light, and perfection
itself, cannot delight in an unclean person : Ps. xxiv. 3, 4, ' Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy
place ? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not
lift up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.' It were endless to
instance in all places. Let us see what obligations lie upon us to be
clean and pure.
1. We are consecrated to the service of a holy God, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. Our God is pure : Hab. i. 13, ' He is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity ; ' that is, so as to let it go unpunished. We
should never think of this, but we should abhor ourselves, and be
ashamed of the remainders of corruption in us. Much dregs and dross
of sin yet remain in the best. Christ is pure, undefiled, separate from
sinners ; so should we be who are separated from the world and dedi
cated unto God. And he came to wash us in his blood, and cleanse us
by his Spirit, and followeth the work he hath begun, till we be without
spot and blemish : Eph. v. 25-27, ' Christ also loved the church,
and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it ; that he
might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without
blemish.' The Holy Spirit, if we belong to God, hath already begun
to purify and sanctify us : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' Such were some of you, but
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of
our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' And the great part of
our duty lieth in obeying his sanctifying motions: 1 Peter i. 22, ' Ye
have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.'
Now all this obligeth us to great purity of heart and life.
19G SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. III.
2. We profess the most holy faith ; this obligeth us also, whether
\ve look to the laws of God, which are the rule of our duty, or the
promises of God, which are the charter of our hopes.
[1.] The laws of God, which measure out our duty to us : Ps. cxix.
140, ' Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.' It is pure
in itself, as being the copy of God's holiness. There is no dead fly in
this box of pure ointment, nothing but what tendeth to cleanse the
heart of man from all that is base and filthy ; and it maketh us
pure : Ps. cxix. 9, ' Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way ?
By taking heed thereunto according to thy word.' It is not direct, or
order, but cleanse. The youngest are defiled already, and if they will
believe and obey the word, there is hope of their cure.
[2.] The promises, which are the charter of our hopes.
(1.) The thing itself, which is promised as our great happiness, en-
forceth it ; and what is that but to see God as he is, and be like him ?
And ' He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as Christ is pure/
1 John iii. 3. The reason is, because if we count it as a happiness to
see God, and be like him, we will desire it and endeavour it. Now
nothing can be propounded to us as the object of our eternal delight
and satisfaction but what is the object of our present desires and
endeavours. If we do not desire it now, and endeavour it now, how
can we look upon it as our blessedness hereafter ? For satisfaction is
the fulfilling of our desires, the rest of our motion. The offer of a
Turkish paradise may breed a brutish spirit in us, but to look for a
pure estate should make us pure and clean.
(2.) Purity of heart and life is necessary to the obtaining of it. Our
interest is suspended upon the performance of this condition. The
comfortable vision of God in the life to come doth only belong to the
clean and pure : Mat. v. 8, ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.' No unclean thing can enter into the new Jerusalem ;
that is no place for goats or swine. Therefore, unless we get this
cleanness of heart, we shall not be admitted into God's blessed presence.
(3.) This fitteth us for it. There is an aptitudinal as well as a con
ditional right. As it is a condition indispensably required, so also the
preparation dispositively fitting us for this state: Col. i. 12, 'Which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light.' The riper we grow for heaven, the more pure and holy we are,
and the more without sin.
[3.] Because of our present communion with God and service of
God.
(1.) Our present communion with God in prayer or other duties
requires it. Surely they that are so frequent and familiar with a holy
God should be a clean and holy people : 1 Tim. ii. 8, ' I will that men
pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands ; ' James iv. 8, ' Draw nigh to
God, and he will draw nigh to you ; cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and
purify your hearts, ye double-minded.' In the Lord's supper : John
xiii. 8, ' Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part
in me.' So in general, in our whole commerce with God : 1 John
i. 7, ' But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin.'
VER. 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 197
(2.) So our present service of God requires it. None but the pure
and clean are fitted to do God service in the world : 2 Tim. ii. 21,
' If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour,
sanctified, and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good
work/ ' From these,' that is, from youthful lusts ; he is more useful
for Christ, and an instrument better fitted for his glory.
III. The special impurity that is in such sins, so that holiness must
be forsaken, or else these vices so opposite to holiness. What special
impurity is there in those sins ?
1. They defile the body, and are contrary to the dignity of the body,
as it is a member of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, or an instru
ment to be used for the glory of God : 1 Cor. vi. 18, ' Flee fornication :
every sin that a man doeth is without the body ; but he that committeth
fornication sinneth against his own body.' Most other sins are against
God or our neighbour, but sins of unclean ness are in a special manner
against one's self, a debasing or defiling the body, a polluting of that
which is consecrated to God to serve him : 1 Thes. iv. 3, 4, ' For this
is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from
fornication ; that every one of you should know how to possess his
vessel in sanctification and honour.' Sanctification is there taken for
chastity. A man's vessel is his body ; for the Hebrews call any instru
ment of use a vessel. Now the keeping it in honour is to preserve it
for God's use, and not to prostitute it to our base lusts. Well, then, if
cleanness and purity be so necessary to Christians, a sin of so foul a
nature must not be slighted, it dishonoureth and polluteth the body.
2. Uncleanness corrupts and defileth the mind ; for it turneth it from
the true pleasure to the false, and that procured on the basest terms of
downright sin against God. It is ill to be corrupted by any degree of
temporal delight, though the thing in itself be lawful ; as his excuse was
faulty who said, Luke xiv. 20, ' I have married a wife and cannot come.'
The entanglements of marriage should not keep thee from Christ, but
the unlawful pleasures of whoredom make the case much more un
questionable. This carrieth away the thoughts and corrupteth the
heart, that they do not only forget God, but deny God, and do bring
in a brutishness upon the heart of man ; and therefore men are easily
taken in this snare, and hardly rescued, being bewitched by their
sensuality: Prov. ii. 19, 'None that go in unto her return again, nor
take they hold of the path of life.' And the preacher saith, Eccles. vii.
28, ' One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among
all these have I not found ; ' Prov. xxii. 14, ; The mouth of a strange
woman is a deep pit ; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall there
in.' Now all these places show, not the utter impossibility, but the
difficulty of repentance, and how hardly this sin is shaken off when
once we are inveigled by it ; for this sin is a strange enchantment on
men.
Use 1. Is information, to inform us what need we have to work in
Christians a greater abhorrence of fornication and uncleanness, because
it is a common sin and a grievous sin.
1. It is a common sin ; and then it is time to cry aloud and spare
not, when persons, both single and married, make so little conscience^ of
this duty. Must we then come and honey them and oil them with
198 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SliR. III.
grace, or feed men's curiosity with tame and smooth strains of contem
plative divinity ? No ; this were to rock them asleep in their sins.
No ; let us rather convince them of their gross immoralities, unfaith
fulness in the marriage covenant. Possibly many of them had never
gone so far if these things had been oftener revived on their con
sciences. Usually men are tender at first, till they be steeped in sin
and bestiality ; but as their minds are further enchanted, all means are
too weak, and God's remedy insufficient. Lust cherished groweth
arrogant, and knoweth no shame ; for then they go on in sin the rather
because God forbiddeth it : Isa. iii. 9, ' They declare their sin as
Sodom, and hide it not;' Jer. v. 8, 'They were as fed horses in the
morning; every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.' Their con
sciences are debauched arid judicially hardened, and so have lost all
remorse of conscience and fear of God's judgment.
2. It is a grievous sin. We will endeavour to touch them in the
tenderest part that is left, viz., fear: Heb. xiii. 4, ' Whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge.' Men think it a small matter to satisfy
nature, but God will find them out both here and hereafter. There
fell in one day twenty-three thousand for this sin : 1 Cor. x. 8,
'Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and
fell in one day three and twenty thousand.' The inconveniency of it is
sensible. It consumeth the strength of the body: Prov. v. 11, 'And
thou mourn at last, when thy flesh and body are consumed.' It
wasteth the estate : Job xxxi. 12, ' For it is a fire that consumeth to
destruction, and will root out all mine increase.' And bringeth a
blemish upon the name : Prov. vi. 33, ' A wound and a dishonour
shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away.' It with-
draweth the heart from God: Hosea iv. 11, 12, 'Whoredom, and wine,
and new wine, take away the heart ; for the spirit of whoredoms hath
caused them to err ; they have gone a-whoring from under their God.'
It unfitteth for every holy duty. Holy and sacred things never can be
seriously received by sensual minds and hearts. Nay, it tempteth you
to forget God, or question his being, and become, if not a downright
atheist, a sceptic in religion. And, lastly, it casteth men into hell :
Rev. xxi. 8, ' Whoremongers shall have their part in the lake that
burneth witli fire and brimstone, which is the second death.'
Use 2. Is caution to young men that are not yet taken in the snare.
Keep yourselves at a great distance from and great abhorrence of this
sin. Therefore, first, avoid occasions : Prov. v. 8, ' Remove thy way
far from her ; come not nigh the door of her house.' So avoid Satan's
assemblies for the communion of sinners, to stir up lusts and filthiness
in them. Avoid the haunts of evil company, where they meet to
inflame their lusts : Prov. iv. 15, ' Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it
and pass away.' Avoid idleness : 2 Sam. xi. 2, ' And David arose
from his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from
the top he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very
beautiful to look upon.' David's heart was fixed. Avoid fulness of
bread, excess in eating and drinking, Ezek. xvi. 49. Avoid obscene
discourse. They are foolish and vain who think they have a chaste
mind when they indulge themselves in all liberty of speech. The
speech bevvrayeth the temper of the heart. Season your hearts with
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 199
God's word : Ps. cxix. 9, ' Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his
way ? by taking heed thereunto according to thy word ; ' 1 John ii. 14,
1 1 have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the
word abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.' But
especially get a sound fear and reverence of God rooted in your hearts :
Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God ? ' Live always as in the sight of God, who is thy maker, preserver,
and judge.
Use 3. Is advice to all Christians. Upon all occasions, think what
will become saints. Let the conscience of your dedication to God be
ever upon your hearts. We that are adopted into God's family, to be
children of God, and heirs of eternal life, redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ, cleansed and sanctified by his Holy Spirit, what a clean
heart should we have within ourselves ! what an holy life should we
carry in the view of others ! Our words should be grave and serious,
our conversations such as will become the gospel ; that no filthiness
may be allowed in us, or drop from us in word or deed : 2 Cor. vii. 1,
' Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit/ We are servants of an holy God ; we
have holy work to do, and an holy estate to expect.
SERMON IV.
Neither pithiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, wliicJi arc not con
venient ; but rather giving of thanks. EPH. v. 4.
THE apostle having condemned three gross sins in life and practice,
he cometh now to speak of three other sins in speech ; for all impurity,
both in word and deed, is forbidden to Christians. In the words note
(1.) The sins enumerated, 'Filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting;'
(2.) The reason of the prohibition, those things ' are not convenient ;'
(3.) The special duty substituted into their room and place, ' But
rather giving thanks.'
First, the sins enumerated are (1.) 'AurxpoTr)?, ' filthiness,' called
elsewhere aurxpdh&yia, filthy communication, 1 Cor. iii. 8, which is a
broad speaking of those things that belong to uncleanness. (2.) There
is fjLapo\ojia, ' foolish talking,' which is meant either of all impertinent,
rash, and roving discourse, which doth rather bewray the speaker's folly
and indiscretion than any way edify the hearers : Prov. xv. 2, ' The
tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools
poureth out foolishness.' When men use a multitude of useless words
to no purpose, or have a torrent of words for a drop of sense ; or of
those that make themselves fools, or act the part of a fool to please
others, as David counterfeited madness before Achish ; as if it were
the praise of a man to make himself an artificial fool or jester to
humour others. (3.) The third word is evrpaTrekia, which we trans
late 'jesting.' The philosopher understands by it that virtue which is
200 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. IV.
called urbanity, which is the middle between scurrility and rusticity.
But as things easily degenerate, so do names ; therefore the apostle-
use th it for that exercise of wit that may be called foolery or mockery,
such as idle and scoffing companions use to make themselves merry
with, or to please some with the hurt and offence of others, and suiteth
not with Christian piety, gravity, charity.
Secondly, The argument or reason used against them: ra ovicavrjic-
ovra, ' These things are not convenient ; ' that is, these things are un
seemly, or unbefitting the seriousness and holiness of a Christian ; and so
it is the same argument with the former, ' as it becometh saints/ only
delivered with some difference of expression. We are apt to extenuate
these sins, therefore consider what will become saints. Christianity is
a grave thing ; it consists chiefly of two parts dying to sin and living
to God ; and those that come under the power as well as the profession
of it are to behave themselves partly as men in conflict with sin, and
partly as those that study to honour and glorify God. With respect to
the first part, our life should be a perpetual repentance, always getting
farther from sin ; therefore the present season is not a time of laughter
and vain mirth, but of agony and strife against the devil, the world,
and the flesh. To live in pleasure upon earth is to gratify our
spiritual enemies, to be laughing when we should be mourning and
weeping, or sowing in tears that we may reap in joy. Therefore
obscene talk or vain babbling, that serveth for no grave use, ridiculous
mirth that only tendeth to vain pleasure, layeth us open to our enemies,
with whom we are in constant warfare ; and so it is unbeseeming chris-
tians, as evidencing a naughty spirit in ourselves, and as tending to
infect others. With respect to the second, the honouring and pleasing
God, our whole life should be a constant hymn to God, or a perpetual
act of praise and thanksgiving: 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Ye are a chosen gener
ation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, to show
forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into hi*
marvellous light.' Therein we have a fitter subject for our rejoicing
than obscene and scurrilous discourse, wherein profane persons most
show their wit
Thirdly, The duty substituted into the room and. place of these :
' But rather ev-^apicnia, giving of thanks ; ' meaning to God (though he
be not mentioned), from whom all mercies are received, and to whom
all praises are due. This is added (1.) To show that delight is not
abrogated, but preferred or transferred to a better object ; and so
answers the objection, Must a Christian be always sad? No; let your
mirth run in a spiritual channel, and then you will have cheerfulness
enough, matter of rejoicing enough, upon better terms, and at a more
sincere rate. (2.) It specifieth what should be the Christian's mirth,
the commemoration of the mercy of God, especially the great benefits
we have by Christ. We need not be beholden to sin for our joy ; we
have the innumerable benefits of God to rejoice in. : Ps. Ixviii. 19,
' Blessed be the Lord, who loadeth us daily with his benefits, even the
God of our salvation ; ' and Eph. v. 20, ' Giving thanks always unto
God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.' There is
the Christian's way of mirth, and that which should revive and cheer
his soul ; there he may rejoice always, and rejoice without offence, and
VER. 4.] SEUMONS UPON EI-HESIANS v. 201
needeth not run to obscene talking or unsavoury jests to cause laughter.
If we be Christians indeed, and esteem what we profess to believe,
can anything be more contentful to us ? (3.) It intimateth what we
should do when our hearts are most disposed to mirth, and we are apt
to let loose ourselves to joy and gladness ; as, namely, when we are
cheered with the liberal use of the creature at feasts and banquets, we
should not wholly compose ourselves to ridiculous mirth, but rather give
thanks : James v. 13, ' Is any merry ? let him sing psalms.' When
we have our souls at this advantage, we should turn our rejoicing into a
spiritual channel.
From this view you see the drift of the text. I shall handle it
more diffusively in these observations
I. That Christians should make great conscience, not only of their
actions, but their words also ; for after the apostle had dissuaded them
from all uncleanness and filthiness in practice, he addeth, 'Neither
filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient/
We must make conscience of our words for these reasons
1. We are not absolute proprietors and possessors of our own selves ;
our tongues are not our own to speak what we please. Exempt any one-
faculty or member from the jurisdiction of God, and you disown his-
authority and interest in you, and open a floodgate to let in sin and
wickedness into the world. They were rebels against God's government
that said, Ps. xii. 4, ' Our tongues are our own ; who is lord over us ? '
We had them from God, and they must be used for him, not against
him ; therefore we are not left to run at random in our ordinary dis
course, to say and utter what we think good.
2. As we had our tongues from God, so we are accountable to him for
the use of them ; and therefore will our actions not only be brought into
the judgment, but our words and speeches also : Mat. xii. 36, 37, ' But
I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
give an account thereof in the day of judgment; for by thy words-
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.'
As if our Lord had said, Deceive not yourselves, as if words were too
light to be accounted for. Words, such as they may be, may occasion
a sad reckoning between Christ and you ; for in distributing rewards,
and punishments, he considereth words as well as actions. All the
business is what is that pr^ia apybv, that idle word which our Lord
there speaketh of, and how far it reacheth. The word may signify
either vain or false : those false and blasphemous words which, out of
the malignity of their hearts, they had uttered against him, are certainly
comprised ; namely, that he did cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince
of devils. But are not other words of lesser malignity included also ?
Yes ; all that bewray the evil treasure of the heart, an ill talent in men,,
as contumelies and reproaches against godliness; yea, rotten speech,
that showeth the prevalency of uncleanness in the heart, for they are
such words as discover a man's state and temper ; for the judgment of
absolution and condemnation is to be passed according to these words.
And though \ve can uot extend the rigour of it so far as to say that
every word which conduceth not to some end of Christian edification
shall make men miscarry in the judgment (alas ! who then could be
saved ?) yet surely we ought to make conscience of all our words.
202 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. IV.
As we must take care that we prejudice not Christian hope, so we must
not open a gap to looseness ; therefore do not say, It is but a matter of
words ; for how little soever men may esteem words, they may weigh
heavy in God's balance, and idle words must be avoided as well as
gross sins.
3. Words do much discover the temper of a man's heart. There
are three operations of man by which he is discovered to be what he
is thoughts, words, and actions ; and all these we should make con
science of. Certainly in all these things there should be a difference
between the people of God and others. To instance in what we are
upon, the people of God should be observably different in their words
and discourse from other men : Prov. x. 20, 'The tongue of the just
is as choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is little worth ; ' where
the tongue of the righteous is opposed to the heart of the wicked, and
compared to silver, and the heart of the wicked to dross. Because
their heart is little worth, their discourse will be accordingly, for the
tongue showeth what is in the heart. So Prov. xv. 7, ' The lips of
the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the fool doth not so.'
Men usually discourse as their hearts are. A man of a frothy spirit
will bring forth nothing but vain and frothy discourse, but a gracious
man will utter holy and gracious things, for the tap runneth according
to the liquor wherewith the vessel is filled. One place more : Ps.
xxxvii. 30, 31, ' The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his
tongue talketh of judgment, the law of God is in his heart.' All men's
discourses are vented accordingly as their hearts are busied and affected.
A man that hath the law of God in his heart, and maketh it his work
to suit his actions thereunto, will also suit his words to it, and edify
those with whom he speaketh. Thoughts, words, and actions are the
genuine products and issues of the heart. Grace in the heart disco vereth
itself uniformly in holy thoughts, holy words, and holy actions ; there
fore if our conference be not different from ordinary men's, it showeth
the temper and constitution of our souls is the same.
4. Because our tongue is our glory : Ps. Ivii. 8, ' Awake, my glory ;
awake, psaltery and harp;' Ps. xvi. 9, ' My heart is glad, and my glory
rejoiceth.' Compare Acts ii. 26, ' My heart is glad, and my tongue
rejoiceth.' So Ps. xxx. 12, ' That my glory may sing praise to thee,
and not be silent; ' that is, my tongue. But why is our tongue called
our glory ? For a double reason, both which are pertinent to the case
in hand
[1.] Because thereby we can express the conceptions of our minds
for the good of mankind. It was not given to us for that use for which
the tongues of the brute beasts serve them, to taste meats and drinks
only, or to taste our food. No ; but to converse with each other.
Speech is the excellency of man above the beasts. Man is %wov TTO\I-
TIKOV, a sociable creature, and therefore fitted by God that we may
entertain one another with discourse. Now it is a manifest abuse of
this excellent faculty when, instead of propagating wisdom and know
ledge, we should only vent our corruption by it ; and should make no
other use of it but to vent our scum and froth to the poisoning and
infecting of other souls. This is to propagate the general taint, and
to make one another more corrupt than we are by nature. Well might
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 203
the prophet complain : Isa. vi. 5, ' I am a man of polluted lips, and
dwell among a people of polluted lips.' By the lips the contagion of
sin spreadeth from one to another, and so our glory is turned into
shame. Therefore if men do not make conscience of their words,
their tongues will run riot against all decency both of speaker and
hearers.
[2.] The other reason why it is called our glory is because thereby
we may express the conceptions of our minds, to the glory of God as
well as the good of others : James iii. 9, ' Therewith we bless God,
even the Father.' And this is proper to us, not only beyond the beasts,
but even the angels. The beasts have tongues, but no reason ; the
angels have reason, but no tongues; but man hath reason, and a tongue
wherewith to utter it, and so man is the mouth of the creation, who can
not only think of God, but speak of God, his word and works. There
fore the chief use of the tongue is to glorify and praise God, to magnify
his name, and delight our souls in the sweet commemoration of his
excellencies and benefits : Ps. xxxv. 28, ' My tongue shall speak of thy
righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.' This is the great
and noble use of the tongue, to give the Lord thanks for mercies
received, or what he has done for the world, for the church, for our
bodies and our souls. Now shall the mouth that is consecrated to
God be filled with dung, and the tongue which was designed for so
excellent and noble a use as to be God's harp be debased to so vile an
office as to become Satan's trumpet, to stir up filthiness and unclean-
ness in ourselves and others, pollute that tongue with lust and filthiness
which should speak of the holy God ?
5. Because our speeches are regarded by God ; and therefore you
must consider not only what is fit for you to utter and others to hear,
but what is fit for God to hear. You are indeed to consider all three.
What is fit for you to utter: Will this become saints? What is
fit for man to hear as tending to his profit, at least not to his hurt.
But this is not all ; in the close of the day, when you are making your
examen, have you spoken such words as are fit for God to hear ? Ps.
cxxxix. 4, ' There is not a word in my tongue but thou knowest it
altogether.' There is not a word we speak, vain or serious, idle or to
purpose, but the Lord considereth it perfectly : Mai. iii. 16, ' Then
they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord
hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written.' He
taketh notice of every word that is spoken for or against him. Keason
will tell us that this certainly belongeth to the infinite perfection of
God's nature; but if it were soundly believed, it would make men
more cautious. If you have spoken wantonly, filthily, foolishly, the
Lord heareth, and you must give an account of it to him. Now tell
me, should we not make conscience of our words ?
6. Because the well ordering of our words is a great point of Chris
tianity, and argueth a good degree of grace : James iii. 2, ' He that
offendeth not with his tongue is a perfect man ;' that is, hath made a good
progress in religion ; for so many ways do we offend with our tongues,
that to restrain the irregularities of them showeth that we have a good
sense of our duty, or a great awe of God upon our hearts, and are able
to resist other temptations, and guide our actions according to the
204 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS Y. [SfiR. IV,
Christian rule. Now, that you may not think it an arbitrary thing, let
me tell you there is an absolute complete perfection, and there is a
perfection of sincerity. He doth not mean it in the first sense, for he
saith there, ' In many things we offend all.' The best have much to
blame and accuse themselves of. But in the latter sense, he is a true and
sincere Christian, one that hath profited in the doctrine of Christ, and
desireth to do all the will of God. But what doth the apostle say of
other manner of Christians, that have gotten no manner of government
of their tongues, but let them loose to all kind of vanity and folly,
censuring, detraction, and evil speaking, &c. ? James i. 26, ' If any man
seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that man's religion
is vain ; ' that is, though he maketh show of living religiously, or
serving and worshipping of God, he doth but deceive himself if he
thinketh his religion shall stand him in any stead. Well, then, life
and death are in the power of the tongue ; upon the good or ill use of
it dependeth not only our temporal but eternal safety.
II. In making conscience of our words, we should specially take
heed of filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting.
There are many evils of the tongue, but these are those which we
have now under consideration. For the first, ' filthiness/ men will
easily grant that this is an evil, but think not so of the second and
third. Natural conscience and reason may cause us to blush at filthi
ness, but is apt to patronise and plead for fooling and jesting, as strains
of wit and pleasantness, and not matters of sin and crime ; therefore
we must go over them particularly, and show that they are sins which
become not sincere Christians.
1. Filthiness is when we speak of obscene things in an obscene man
ner, without any respect to modesty and Christian gravity or sobriety.
Now this is a great evil, for filthy speakers bring the spiritual miserere
upon themselves, or that disease whereby men vomit their excrements
by their mouth ; nothing is more beastly than their speeches. But
they that can speak filthy words without blushing will commit filthy
deeds without shame or restraint ; for by their filthy talk they have
polluted their own minds, and prepared themselves for the sin.
[1.] It is a sin most inconsistent with any reverence and fear of
God : Ps. xix. 9, ' The fear of the Lord is clean/ Because there is
shamelessness and boldness in it : Isa. iii. 9, ' They declare their sin as
Sodom ; they hide it not.' Now it is a grievous temper and state of
heart to know no shame, for this is to contemn and despise God.
Others disobey him ; but such despise him, and seem to have cast off
all honesty, and glory in their shame, as if it were a credit to them to
defy the holy God and the restraint of his laws.
[2.] It is a grief to the Holy Spirit, as it obstructs that purity and
cleanness of heart which he would work in us : Eph. iv. 29, 30, ' Let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the
hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption.' The Spirit is represented both as the
Holy Spirit, and as the Spirit of peace, and so opposite both to filthiness
and clamour. His habitation must be clean and quiet ; therefore
clamour, wrath, and bitterness must be put away.
YER. 4.] SKRMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 205
[3.] You infect others, and corrupt them by filthy discourse. Many
an hopeful gentleman hath been debauched this way, by unclean
representations both from the stage and the talk of their company.
The filthy speakers are factors for hell to proselyte men to the devil, and
draw unwary souls into his snare : 2 Peter ii. 18, ' They allure through
the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean
escaped from them that live in error ; ' they entice and cast them back
again into all carnality and filthiness
2. The next word is fj.copo\ojla, ' foolish speaking.' This hath so
many branches, that it is hard to reckon them up ; as
[1.] When they speak of foolish things. As some can spend hours
in telling vain tales, that serve for no other use but to possess the minds
of the hearers with levity and folly. Now if the ' thought of foolish
ness be sin,' Prov. xxiv. 9, words of foolishness are much more sin, as
they are more public, and abuse the time and ears of others : Prov. xv.
14, ' The mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness ; ' it is as diet to them.
[2.] When men speak of serious things in a ludicrous and vain man
ner, and design it for jest. This is playing with sacred things, like
the Philistines calling for Samson to make them sport, Judges xvi. 25,
or the Babylonians asking for one of the songs of Sion, Ps. cxxxvii. 3,
or the sensualists inventing themselves instruments of music like David,
Amos vi. 5, as if their carnal mirth never relished better than when it
is seasoned with something that is sacred, and religion is forced to serve
their profane mirth.
[3.] Lavish, superfluous speech to no end : Prov. xxix. 11, 'A fool
uttereth. all his mind.' They can hold nothing, but, whether it tend
to hurt or profit, out it cometh. Many have gotten a custom of vain
babbling, and full of endless talk to no purpose. Now ' In the multi
tude of words there wanteth not sin/ Prov. x. 13; and all this prattle
cometh out of a vain and foolish heart, that never had any serious sense
of holy things ; and therefore are indifferent what they speak, for God
or error ; things that belong to them, or belong to them not, their own
or other men's matters.
[4.] Hash speech, to speak of things they understand not. As the
apostle speaketh of some that, desiring to be teachers of the law, under
stand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, 1 Tim. i. 7. As
many, like little infants, will attempt to run before they can go, so
some are full of talk, and all about matters of controversy in religion,
which they understand little of. But empty vessels and shallow brooks
make the loudest noise.
[5.] Another kind of it is personal boasting, to set off themselves and
their own excellencies. All their discourse is of themselves : Prov. xxv.
"27, ' For men to search their own glory is not glory.' This Trepiav-
-0X07/0, is foolish speaking, when all their discourse tendeth to set oft'
themselves, and usher in something of themselves, and I cometh in at
the end of every sentence. The rule is, another man's mouth should
commend us, not our own : Prov. xxvii. 2, ' Let another man praise
thee, not thine own mouth ; a stranger, not thine own lips.' But I
will not undertake to reckon up all the kinds of it.
Now I shall prove that it is a sin that should be made conscience of.
(1.) Because it suiteth not with the seriousness of religion, which is
206 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SEE. IV.
the wisdom of God. As he hath manifested the riches of his grace and
goodness in the gospel, so he hatli 'abounded to us in all wisdom and pru
dence,' Eph. i. 8. There should not be a wiser man than a Christian, who
is guided by the direction and counsel of a wise God, and therefore all
his discourse should be grave and wise and serious. Solomon telleth
us, Prov. x. 31, that 'The mouth of the righteous bringeth forth wisdom.
His heart is stocked with such truths as contain the highest wisdom
in the world, and therefore his mouth should overflow with it ; as he
that hath in his pocket more store of gold than of brass farthings will
at every draught bring out more gold than farthings.
(2.) It suiteth not with the mortified estate of sincere Christians.
All foolish talking cometh from some unmortified lusts in our hearts,.
such as pride, vainglory, worldliness, uncleanness ; therefore are they
talking of vain things, and boasting of themselves with the contempt
of others ; and till these lusts be mortified, in vain do we expect a
cure. Now when the heart is purified and purged from vanity, world
liness, and pride, men's discourse is presently altered. If the heart be
set on the world, their discourse is commonly of the world : 1 John
v. 5, ' They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the
world heareth them.' If the heart be unclean, and swarm with
noisome lusts, the speech will be rotten. If the heart be proud, men
love to hear themselves talk. Vainglory will betray itself in our dis
courses. Every carnal affection leaveth a tincture on our speech.
(3.) Because it shutteth out better discourse, and so converse with
others is rendered unprofitable. Omission of good is caused by it.
A Christian should come into no company but he should bethink him
self what he is to do or say for God there. Now when men abandon
themselves to foolish speaking, they little mind the use of edifying, or
speaking of the great and most necessary things. Better things would
come into other men's minds and mouths if they were not entertained
with such vain discourse ; and so the lean kine eat up the fat, and
the better part doth not only give way to necessary business, but even
impertinent vanities. Martha is rebuked for losing the season, when
Mary heard Christ's gracious words, Luke x. 39-41, and she was
employed about the necessary ministry of the family. How much
then are they to be rebuked that jostle out all good discourse by their
vain and unprofitable talk !
(4.) Because it argueth great emptiness, that we have not a good
treasure within us, Mat. xii. 35, or have not hid the word in our
hearts, Ps. cxix. 11, or not taken care that it might dwell in us richly,
Col. iii. 16. The full vessel will plash over, but vain empty spirits
have nothing good to serve and supply the necessities of others.
3. We come now to the third sin enumerated, 'and jesting,' evrpa-
Here we must state this matter.
Is all jesting unlawful and misbecoming Christians ?
[1.] My answer must be negative ; for honest recreation and mode
rate laughter, to fit the mind for serious things, is certainly lawful :
Eccles. iii. 4, ' There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh ; ' and
honest and pleasant discourses are, at fit times and opportunities, law
ful and edifying, as they tend to maintain cheerfulness of mind, and
alacrity of spirit, which is profitable both to our health and duty : Prov,
VER. 4.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 207
xvii. 22, ' A merry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit
drieth the bones.' Why then should we not exercise our tongues face
tiously, as well as any other member ? But then
[2.] I must tell you that, in recreating our spirits with pleasant and
delightful discourse, it is an hard matter to keep within the bounds of
lawful and allowed mirth. There is an easy passage from what is
allowed to what is forbidden : ' The fool's heart is in the house of mirth,'
Eccles. vii. 4, 5 ; whereas the house of mourning is more profitable
for us in this mixed estate.
[3.1 In the use of it, all due circumstances must be observed ; as
(1.) In the matter. On the one side, filthiness and sin must not be
matter of jesting ; for that always is matter of grief and shame to us,
whether we reflect upon it as committed by ourselves or others. It is
a dunghill mirth that must have somewhat unclean to feed it. On the
other side, nothing sacred. It is profane and impious for men to abuse
scripture, to vent the conceptions of their light and wanton wits. No ;
there must be still a care, as of Christian sobriety, that nothing sinful,
so of Christian piety, that nothing sacred, may be the matter of our
mirth.
(2.) For the manner. It must be harmless to others, not making
sport with their sins or miseries ; for that is against charity, which
' rejoiceth not in evil,' OVK eTri^apeKafcei, 1 Cor. xiii. 6. Especially
not to mock at parents, magistrates, and others whom for their age,
gifts, or office we are bound to reverence. Yea, we must consider what
others are able to bear, not making ourselves merry with their infir
mities, nor using such offensive jests and tart reflections on their per
sonal imperfections as may provoke them to wrath and anger.
(3.) For the measure. Not excessive wasting the time in vain,
especially not habituating the mind to levity ; that is scurrility when
men accustom themselves so to vain jesting that they cannot possibly be
serious ; they can as well be immortal as serious. This hardeneth the
heart in impenitency, and maketh some men look like professed jesters
rather than Christians. They have hardened themselves in the excess of
a jocular way, that a man cannot tell whenever they are serious. And
so, for the warning of the world, God hangeth up some in the chains of
this sin, as well as others as instances for gluttony, whoredom, and
drunkenness.
(4.) For the time. Not when God calleth us to mourning or more
serious employments should it be taken in hand. To be jesting in public
calamities is to affront God's providence. And business must not give
way to sport. Our true mirth lieth in our duty, and that must have
the chief place, especially in its season.
(5.) The end and use must not be forgotten. Our great end is to
serve and glorify God, and everything that we do must have respect to
it, and be proportioned by it. As the apostle speaketh of other passions
of soul : 2 Cor. v. 13, ' If we be beside ourselves, it is for God ; if we
be sober, it is for your sakes.' In all tempers he minded the glory of
God and their good. So in other passions ; sorrow is allowable, as it
worketh repentance unto salvation ; so mirth, as it doth exhilarate the
spirits for the service of God, and as it may be useful to our great end ;
it is therefore to be allowed only so far as it is concomitant with and
subservient unto better things.
208 SERMONS UPON EPHEHIANS V. [SfiR. IV.
III. One special means of checking such sins is to consider how much
they misbecome Christians ; for the apostle saith no more but ' they
are not convenient,' or do not agree with that state of grace into
which we profess to be called.
For three reasons this will hold good
1. Because there are four affections which serve to draw us from and
guard us against sin fear, shame, grief, and indignation. Our flight
from sin is begun in fear, continued in shame, carried on by grief or
sorrow, and endeth in indignation ; and so sin is renounced, and the
power of it broken. Now all these affections have a proper ground and
consideration to set them a-worlc. Fear of wrath and damnation
begins the work ; for men have a quicker sense of danger than of other
things. Shame looketh upon sin, not only as hurtful, but as filthy and
brutish, and that which maketh us loathsome to God. It is <o/3o<?
Sueafat ^Jroyov, fear of just disgrace. The filthiness and folly of sin is the
proper object of shame. Sorrow considereth God's goodness and sin's
unkindness, causing us to mourn that we should break the laws of
Ood, to whom we are so much obliged, for very trifles. Indignation
worketh on the unseemliness and disconveniency of sin, either to the
nature of man, or that grace to which we are called by Christ. In
short, fear looketh on sin as damning : Acts ii. 37, ' When they heard
this, they were pricked at their hearts, saying What shall we do to be
saved ? ' Shame, as defiling : Ezek. vi. 9, ' They shallloathe themselves
for the evils they have committed in all their abominations.' Sorrow,
as offensive to so good a God : Zech. xii. 10, ' They shall look upon me
whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him ; ' Luke vii. 47,
' She hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs
of her head.' Indignation looketh upon sin as unbecoming our present
resolutions and professions, our hopes and interest : Isa. xxx. 22, ' Thou
shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto it, Get
thee hence ; ' Hosea xiv. 8, ' Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any
more with idols ? ' this is the soul's expulsive faculty. In short, the
guilt of sin causeth fear ; the stain, shame ; the unkindness, sorrow ;
unsuitableness, indignation. Awaken this, and sin cannot have long
entertainment in the heart. Therefore it is enough to a serious Christian :
It is not convenient.
2. The unsuitableness mindeth us of our dignity, as being admitted
to communion with God. Therefore to talk of filthiness with that
tongue which is to be employed in speaking of God, and to God, is a most
indecorous thing ; as it is to empty nature and put our food into the
same vessel. Will you pollute those lips that should show forth God's
praise ? There is no agreement between these things ; either we must
lay aside the one or the other. Now which will you part with, filthi
ness and foolish speaking, or the blessing and praising of God ? Both
parts you cannot act well, for the one is destructive of the other.
3. This striketh at the root of the temptation. Many think filthiness,
foolish speaking, and jesting to be a great grace to them, and affect the
reputation of wit at such a rate that they forget honesty. No ; these
are not an honour and a grace, but a blemish and a blot. The apostle
telleth you they are ' not convenient/ You thwart not only religion,
but baffle conscience, that secretly telleth you this is not grave and
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 209
serious ; it is not a glory, but a baseness ; a thing you may rather be
ashamed of, than affect the venting of wit in this manner, or pride
yourselves in the deformed birth of your foolish minds.
IV. That a Christian cannot want mirth as long as he hath such
abundant cause to give thanks.
I will open this note in these considerations
1. That it is an excellent exchange when we can change a sin for a
duty; as in this case, byturning censure into admonition, and reproof
or discontent into prayer, complaining of God into complaining to God,
or carnal mirth into spiritual rejoicing, or jesting into giving thanks.
2. Evils are best cured by diversion. When our pleasantness is not
abolished, but diverted, and directed to its proper object. It would be
a shame for a man that calls himself a Christian not to acknowledge
that giving of thanks is a better subject of our mirth than filthiness
and folly. The mind must have some oblectation, but let it run in its
proper channel. Thankfulness is the sweetest employment in the
world. To be always thinking or speaking of such sweet things as the
mercies of God, surely if we esteem and value them, it will be more
delightful to us than to be pleasing our fleshly lusts : Ps. Ixiii. 5,
' My mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.'
3. None have such cause of delightful praise and thanksgiving as a
Christian. He hath greater matters to talk of than those things that
are the subject of fools' boasting. Besides what is common to him with
others, all the works of God to admire, and his excellencies shining forth
in creation and providence, he hath the mystery of redemption, the grace
of the new covenant, the glory of heaven, his own hopes. Our whole
religion is an foyapia+fa ', for Christianity is a partaking of the benefit,
1 Tim. vi. 2 ; besides many personal favours which should ever be
before our eyes.
4. There is not any case incident to a Christian but still there will
be found ground of thanksgiving and rejoicing: Phil. iv. 4, 'Rejoice
in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice.' We have cause to be
thankful for particular grace, for mercies in hand or hope. Well, then,
carnal mirth may be cured by such a remedy at hand.
SERMON V.
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor cove
tous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom
of Christ and of God. EPH. v. 5.
THE apostle had argued ab incongruo, from what is indecent and mis
becoming saints ; now a periculo, from the danger of such practices :
and fitly, because temptations do not usually enter by the fore-door
of reason, but the back-door of sensual appetite and carnal desires ;
which therefore must be counterbalanced by dangers and fears, that,
seeing the hook, we may be afraid to swallow the bait. The danger
VOL. xix. o
210 SERMOMS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. V.
of such practices is double there is pcena damni et sensus. Poena
damni, exclusion from the kingdom of God, as in the text read to you.
Pcena sensus, they run the hazard of his wrath and eternal displeasure ;
as ver. 6, ' For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the chil
dren of disobedience.'
In the text there is
1. A sentence passed on all unclean persons : they have no ' inherit
ance in the kingdom of Christ and of God/ t
2. The certainty and evidence of it : ' For this ye know.'
First, In the sentence we have (1.) The subject, or persons spoken
of ; (2.) The predicate, what is said of them.
1. The subject : ' No whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous,,
who is an idolater.' Where mark, he mentioneth not the lesser sins,
filthiness of talk, foolish speaking, jesting, but the more grievous
trangressions spoken of ver. 3, 6Vt Tra? 776/91/09, rj cucaOapTos, rj ir\eov-
efcrw, not but that they in themselves deserve damnation, but they are
but appendages and degrees to the other sins.
Again observe, in the enumeration there is a special brand put upon
the third sort, 'Nor the covetous person, who is an idolater.' ITXe-
ovegia here signifieth excessive and unnatural lusts ; because it is put
among the nefanda, and because the word is clearly so used Eph.
iv. 19, and in other places is joined with words that signify unnatural
and unlawful lusts not fit to be named : 1 Cor. v. 10, * With the fornica-
tors of this world, or with the covetous ; ' and Col. iii. 5, ' Mortify your
members which are upon earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.'
Certainly there is some reason why this should always bear company
with these unclean sins ; and what is it but that it hath affinity, and
is of the same nature with them ? 1 Thes. iv. 6, 7, ' That no man go
beyond and defraud his brother in any matters, because the Lord is the
avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned and testified ; for God
hath not called ua to uncleanness, but unto holiness,' ^77 inreppaiveiv
KOI, 7r\.ovKTeiv, &c. We render it, ' That none go beyond and defraud
his brother in any matter, because God is the avenger of such.' But
the reason rendered, ver. 7, ' For God hath not called us to unclean-
ness, but to holiness,' will enforce another sense, not to yield to unnatural
and unlawful lusts, to commit filthiness with his fellow-christians,
in such a manner as is not to be plainly mentioned, or in that way
of villany for which God punished Sodom, and hath exercised
severe vengeance on the very heathens. This seemeth everywhere the
meaning of a i rr\eove$;la, ' inordinate lusts,' which we translate ' covet
ousness/ Now what 7r\eovej;la is in the abstract, that TrXeoz/e/cT^s
is in the concrete ; a man given to inordinate lusts, or filthiness not to
be named. But this man, be he 'covetous/ or be he an 'inordinate
luster/ is said to be an ' idolater/ as covetousness and inordinate lusting
in the Epistle to the Colossians is said to be ' idolatry/ I confess this
staggered me at first, and made me suspect my former interpretation,
because covetousness is known idolatry ; as ' Charge the rich men in
this world, that they trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living
God,' 1 Tim. i. 17 ; and Job xxxi. 24, ' If I have made gold my hope,
or said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence/ This I confess
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 211
staggered me, and made me think covetousness is to be taken in the
ordinary and vulgar acceptation ; but I recovered myself again, when
I considered that interpretative idolatry is when the creature is set in
the place of God ; which may be done two ways by confidence and
trust, and by love and delight ; for there are two chief respects due to
God love and trust. Now though the covetous person in the ordi
nary sense is an idolater, as he trusts in uncertain riches, and maketh
wealth his all, so men given to other sins, especially to the greediness of
nncleanness, may be idolaters also, because they prefer their brutish
satisfactions before God. And the apostle saith the same : Eom. xvi.
18, ' They serve not God, but their own belly ; ' and again, Phil. iii.
19, 'Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly/ Add, more
over, they may be called idolaters also because they yet live in the same
villanies and abominable practices which heathens and idolaters do, and
are very reconcilable to them ; therefore I shall stick to the sense first
given, many of the ancients concurring, and also divers of the most
learned modern writers producing irrefragable proofs for their exposi
tion, not fit now to be insisted on.
2. The predicate, ' Hath no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ
and of God ; ' that is, no portion in the church of God under Christ,
nor inheritance in heaven ; for there is both a kingdom of grace and of
glory. The latter is especially understood, that kingdom spoken of,
Mat. xxv. 34, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you.' They have no right unto, and so living and so dying,
never shall have possession of, that blessed estate. And it is called ' the
kingdom of Christ and of God,' because this kingdom is now in the
hands of Christ as mediator, and so shall be till the judgment be over ;
but after the judgment, he shall give up the kingdom to the Father, 1
Cor. xv. 24, or resign up the church to God, to live and reign with
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for ever.
Secondly, The evidence, ' For this ye know.' In the original, eVre
yivcoo-Kovres , ye are knowing. It is a Greek circumlocution, to make
the sense more emphatical ; as if he had said, If ye have the least taste
of the Christian religion, ye cannot be ignorant of this, that such filthi-
ness and unlawful lusts deprive us of the kingdom of God ; ye have
been always taught this. Now this is added
1. To show how heinous a sin this would be in them that have faith
and knowledge, and yet indulge these kind of lusts ; these rebel against
the light of conscience, and wilfully forfeit heaven to please the flesh :
James iv. 17, ' Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it
not, to him it is sin.'
2. To teach us that we ought to be put in mind of what we already
know ; for temptations induce a strange kind of oblivion into the mind,
which is an ignorance for the present: 2 Peter i. 12, 'I will not be
negligent to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know
them ; ' and 1 John ii. 21, ' I have not written to you because you know
not the truth, but because ye know it ; ' and Korn. xv. 15, ' I have
written to you, as putting you in mind.' Our work is not only to in
form people of what they know not, but to inculcate and press known
truths ; not only to cure ignorance, but also forgetfulness, laziness, and
dulness.
212 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. V.
Doct. That it is an evident truth that all unclean persons have no
inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ.
1. That there is a kingdom of God. This notion implieth, on God's
part, his sovereign authority and right to command ; and on our part,
both duties and privileges. On God's part, ' One God over all, blessed
for ever,' Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who hath full right, as creator,
to command and govern us with such laws as he thought fit to give us,
with such rewards and penalties as he thought fit to annex to them.
This right God never divested himself of, nor can it be vacated by our
sin, but continueth still, while man receiveth his being from God by
creation, and the continuance of his being by daily preservation and
providence. There is dominium jurisdictionis et proprietatis. The
dominion of jurisdiction is founded in the dominion of propriety. We
are his own, for he created us out of nothing, and therefore hath a full
right and title to govern us. Now God will govern us, not with a rod
of iron, by necessity and force, but with the bands of a man, by laws
backed and confirmed with rewards and punishments ; for he will not
violate the liberty of his own workmanship. Man, being a rational and
free agent, is governed accordingly by moral means, induced to his duty
by the rewards of obedience, and deterred from sin by the punishments
appointed for the wicked and rebellious. On our part the kingdom of
God implieth Duties and privileges.
[1.] Duties. As in a kingdom subjects are bound to obey their
proper and rightful lord, so here ; God being our lawgiver and king,
as he hath right to command, so we are bound to obey. As in the
Lord's prayer, when we say, ' Thy kingdom come,' we presently say,
' Thy will be done,' Mat. vi. 10. All that own his kingdom are bound
to obey his will. So Mat. vi. 33, ' First seek ye the kingdom of God
and his righteousness ; ' that is, approve yourselves to be the faithful
servants and subjects of God. Well, then, this is required of us, that
we be willingly subject to God. All creatures are subject to him by
constraint, the devils themselves not excepted, though rebels and
grievous revolters; but those are properly said to be his subjects that
willingly consent to his government.
[2.] Privileges. There are many privileges belong to God's subjects,
both for the present and in the world to come. For the present, that
they are under the special care and protection of God, both as to their
bodies and souls. For the souls, he sanctifieth them, writeth his laws
upon their hearts and minds, as he did upon Adam's heart in innocency,
and promiseth to do it in the new covenant made in Christ to those
that serve and obey him, Heb. viii. 10 ; and so the kingdom of God is
within us, Luke xvii. 21. And besides, giveth us peace of conscience
and joy in the Holy Ghost, Eom. xiv. 17. And then for our outward
man, protection and maintenance. The necessaries of this life shall
not be wanting to those that enter into his kingdom: Mat. vi. 33,
' First seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be added unto you.' But in the world to come we enjoy
our chief privileges, and therefore our estate there is called ' his ever
lasting kingdom,' 2 Peter i. 11 ; and Luke xii. 32, ' It is your Father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.' That is our blessed state,
where we are absolutely free from all evil ; therefore called the ' day of
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 213
redemption,' Eph. iv. 30, because all the effects of sin then cease, and
therefore we enjoy all good. Every subject weareth a crown, which is
sometimes called ' a crown of life/ James i. 12, ' a crown of righteous
ness,' 2 Tim. v. 8. A crown of life to show the happiness of that estate,
and a crown of righteousness to show the sureness of it. This is chiefly
considered here.
2. There is no entrance into this kingdom but by coming into the
kingdom of Christ. Besides the kingdom which belongeth to Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, one true and only God, there is the kingdom of
Christ considered as mediator ; a new right of empire and sovereignty
over the creature, not destructive of the former, but accumulative, as
superadded to it, that the government of God might be the more com
fortable and beneficial to us in our lapsed estate. This is called ' the
kingdom of Christ,' because Christ, as mediator, hath purchased it :
Rom. xiv. 9, ' For to this end Christ both died, and rose again, and
revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living ;' Rev.
ii. 12, ' Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.' And
upon the account of his merit and redemption of captive souls, God
hath bestowed it upon him : Ps. ii. 8, ' Ask of me, and I will give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession ; ' and Acts ii. 36, ' God hath made this Jesus, whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.' Made, that is, appointed,
ordained. It is God's kingdom by original right, but Christ's by dona
tion and purchase. Besides, it is Christ's kingdom because he is the
administrator of it, both as to legislation and execution. Legislation :
Mat. xxviii. 18, ' All power is given to me both in heaven and in earth ;'
and John xvii. 2, ' Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as tliou hast given him.' The
mediator, God-man, is the supreme prince and head of the church,
that he might dispense salvation upon his own terms, and his doctrine
and faith might be embraced by all nations in the world. Here is a
new power, new government, new laws, which shall be the rule of
man's duty and God's judgment. Now this is comfortable and bene
ficial to us, because this new kingdom was set afoot to save and recover
fallen man, who was disabled for his duty, and incapable of the happi
ness which God offered, and obnoxious to his displeasure. Therefore
the kingdom and lordship of Christ is spoken of as medicinal and
restorative, tending to reduce man to God, that after the breach we
might again enjoy his favour, and live in his obedience : Acts xvi. 46,
'Preaching peace by Jesus Christ ; he is Lord of all.' He is set up to
be king and lord, to make peace between God and man, who were at
odds before. His right to govern obliged him to chastise us for our
rebellions : Acts v. 31, ' Him hath God exalted to be a prince and
saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.' This new Lord
and king hath made a new law of grace, which is lex remedians, a
remedying law, propounded as a remedy for the recovering and restor
ing of the lapsed world of mankind to the grace and favour of God,
granting thereby free pardon and right to blessedness to all that sin
cerely repent and believe in him, but sentencing them to death that
will not believe in Christ. Now without entering into this kingdom of
214 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SEE. Y.
Christ there is no entering into the kingdom of God. These two are
not contrary, but the one is subordinate to the other ; namely, the
kingdom of Christ is derived from God, and referred to him. The
supreme right of governing is still in God, and our subjection to him
is preserved : Phil. ii. 11, ' That every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' And Christ doth
redeem us that we may serve him : Luke i. 74, ' That he would grant
unto us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might
serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the
days of our life.' And besides, it is impossible that we can perform the
duties that belong to the kingdom of God, or enjoy the privileges
thereof, without entering into the kingdom of Christ ; for he healeth
our natures, and giveth repentance as a prince, Acts v. 31, or a new
nature, as the foundation of a new obedience. Nor can we enjoy the privi
leges, pardon and life. Pardon we have not till we be Christ's subjects :
Col. i. 18, 14, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of Satan, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son ; in whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.' As soon as
we are brought into his kingdom, then we have remission of sins.
Then for life : There is no access to the kingdom of God in glory but
by Jesus Christ as mediator : John xiv. 6, ' Jesus saith unto him, I
am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father
but by me.' Christ first took possession of it in our name : John xiv.
2, 3, ' In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I
would have told you : I go to prepare a place for you ; and if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto my
self, that where I am ye may be also/ And so in due time we get
possession also, and reign for ever with him : Kev. iii. 21, ' To him
that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I
overcame and sat down with the Father in his throne.' After we have
a while resisted the devil, and approved ourselves to Christ, we attain
that immortal glory, a part of which is reigning with Christ, and
dominion over the creatures.
3. The title or right to the privileges of Christ's kingdom is by way
of inheritance. This word is solemnly used in this case ; as Mat. xxv.
34, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, ^inherit the kingdom prepared for
you ; ' and Acts xxvi. 18, ' That ye may have remission of sins, and
an inheritance among the sanctified.' So Col. i. 12, 'Made meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light ; ' and innumerable
other places. Those excellent things which are prepared for us in
another world are of the nature of an inheritance, not purchased by us,
but freely bestowed upon us, by virtue of our adoption and sonship.
God adopteth us in Christ, and receiveth us into his family. What
followeth ? ' If a son, then an heir of God through Christ/ Gal. iv. 7 ;
and Horn. viii. 17, ' If sons, then heirs, joint heirs with Christ.' Our
right to the heavenly inheritance cometh to us by virtue of our sonship
and adoption, which is begun in the kingdom of grace, and perfected
in glory. God, of rebels, at first inaketh us sons, before we can lay
claim to heaven and glory as our portion and inheritance. All the
business then will be, who hath a right to sonship ? If you search
the scriptures, you will find that it belongeth only to those that
YER. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 215
4 believe in Christ,' who recovered our lost and forfeited privileges : John
i. 12, ' To as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God.' Well, then, thus far we have gone. Inheritance
depends upon adoption and sonship ; sonship upon the grace of the
Redeemer ; and a right to the Redeemer's grace we have by faith.
But will every faith serve the turn ? No ; none but such as produceth
purity and obedience ; for the property of faith is to purify the heart.
Acts xv. 9 ; and without purity of heart no man shall see God, Mat.
v. 8. Again, faith produceth obedience ; for the mystery of the gospel
is made known to all nations for the obedience of faith, Rom. xvi. 26,
and none but such have a right : Rev. xxii. 14, ' Blessed are they that
do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life.'
Those that obey and fulfil the will of God have a right to be admitted
into heaven.
4. By the tenor of the Christian doctrine it plainly appeareth that
whoredom and all uncleanness excludeth men from this inheritance ;
therefore unclean persons, and men given to unnatural lusts, have no
right, and cannot, without usurpation, pretend to any hopes of this
blessed estate. It appeareth plainly by these particulars
(1.) Because it is contrary to that covenant by which all enter into
Christ's kingdom : Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth, and is baptized,
-shall be saved.' Now baptism implieth a renouncing the devil, the
world, and the flesh, and a dedicating ourselves to Father, Son, and
'Holy Ghost, as our creator, redeemer, and sanctifier ; and therefore by
the baptismal covenant none can be saved but those whose faith effec
tually turneth them from the world and the flesh to the love, service,
<and obedience of God, so that they first live to him, and do hereafter
.live with him. And this covenant doth still bind them, under the
penalty of damnation and losing the hopes of glory, to mortify and
subdue the desires of the flesh more and more : Gal. v. 24, ' They that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts
thereof.' Those that are baptized into his name have entered into his
kingdom, profess themselves to be his subjects ; they not only ought,
but it is presumed that they have, crucified the flesh. In what a woful
case then are all those that obey the inclinations of the flesh, and suffer
their lusts to have their full career, without check or stop, and take no
course to mortify them, that do neither combat nor overcome, that live
in all uncleanness and filthiness ! They must seek another religion to
comfort them, for Christianity is not for their turn.
(2.) Because of God's express exclusion. Surely they are excluded
from this inheritance whom God excludes and Christ excludes. Now
-everywhere God has declared his mind not by consequence, but direct
sentence: 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 'Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God ? ' These things are inconsistent with a Christian's duty and reward ;
and to flatter yourselves with a belief or hope of the contrary is to give
God the lie. So Rev. xxi. 8, you have another black catalogue : ' But
the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have
216 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. V.
their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death.' It is opposed there to the saint's inheritance : ' He
that overcometh shall inherit all things.' But they that will neither
fight, nor strive, nor seek the assistance of Christ's Holy Spirit, that
they may overcome their lusts, but wallow in these sins and vices,
shall be damned into hell. So again, Rev. xxii. 15, ' Without are
dogs, sorcerers, and whoremongers.' Dogs are they that eat what they
have vomited, and after repentance fall into their former sins. The
other sinners are sufficiently known by their own names ; only you see
whoremongers are not forgotten, but expressly mentioned as those that
shall be without, that is, excluded from the blessedness of the saints.
Now what can such sinners say for themselves against such express-
denunciations of God's word against them ? It may be they say they
do believe in Christ, and all that believe are pardoned, and justified
from all their sins ; but Christ will be no patron of wickedness. He
that believeth giveth up himself to be sanctified and governed by him,
as well as to be pardoned and reconciled to God. If faith be used to
cross obedience, it is no true faith ; for ' Christ is the author of eternal
salvation to all them that obey him,' Heb. v. 9. To all them, and only
them. If you believe Christ, you must believe that you cannot be
saved unless you be converted to God. It is the devil, and not Christ,
that telleth you you may be saved in an unregenerate estate. If a bare
strong confidence in Christ that we shall be saved notwithstanding our
sins were true faith, the hardest heart would make the best faith. Who
fuller of confidence and foolish presumption than they that are hardened
in their sins? Therefore the business is not about faith and believing,
but whether you believe Christ or Satan. If you hear Christ's voice in
the word, this controversy is at an end. He hath flatly told you that
you thus living and dying cannot be saved, and have no inheritance
among the saints in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
[3.] From the heinous nature of the sin. It is a sin of great atheism,
and great infidelity. By the scriptures you know, or might easily
know, that if you live in uncleanness, you incur the loss of heaven ; yet
you are so violently bent upon the fulfilling of your lusts that this can
not reclaim you. Certainly faith cannot consist with these sins. A man
may run blindfold into hell if he will wink hard and go on securely :
but he that will with open eyes run into the bottomless pit, he doth
not believe the danger. You cannot drive a dull ass into the fire that
is kindled before him ; and Solomon telleth us, ' In vain is the net
spread in the sight of any bird.' If men that have reason and con
science had eternity in their sight and view, would they venture thus ?
You never knew a soaken sinner in this kind, but he had ill thoughts
of God and the world to come.
[4.] It is idolatry. Primary idolatry is when divine honours are
given to any creature. But how is whoredom and uncleanness idol
atry ? Because by it men are addicted to some base thing which they
prefer before God. They love brutish pleasures more than God:
2 Tim. iii. 4, ' Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; ' and for
the satisfaction of their lusts are deaf to all God's counsels ; that is
our god who is most valued by us, and for whose sake we will do
most. Now if men can dispense with God's honour and their duty to
VER. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 217
him for a sense-pleasing and flesh-pleasing life, they will do more for
the flesh than they do for God ; therefore the flesh and the belly is
their God. Now how justly are they deprived of salvation who put
such a vile scorn upon the great God, our creator and preserver, who
prefer the belly and the flesh before him ! All their business is to
have their will and pleasure for a while ; but how long will they have
their will in these things ? Besides, such a base god as they have set
up must needs breed a base spirit ; for every man's temper is as his god
is. As the psalmist saith of gross idolaters, Ps. cxxxv. 8, ' They that
make them are like unto them ; so is every one that trusteth in them ; *
so it is true of interpretative idolatry; this idol of carnal pleasure
embaseth the spirit, and maketh them unfit for everything that is
worthy, noble, and generous.
[5.] Because they have not that spirit that should fit them and make
them meet for heaven. All the world issue themselves at length into
two places, heaven or hell ; and by the way they have a several sort of
spirit that disposeth them to either. The godly and sincere Christians
have the Spirit of Christ ; it is absolutely and indispensably necessary
for them : Rom. viii. 9, ' He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none
of his.' If you have any part in Christ, you are possessed with his-
Spirit, which is the earnest of your everlasting abode with him : 2 Cor.
i. 22, 'Who hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of his Spirit in our
hearts ; ' for he stirreth up heavenly desires and motions, and putteth
you upon serious preparations for a better estate. And it is God's
wisdom to put all things in their proper places ; and therefore in time,
when they are sufficiently prepared and made meet, he will translate
heavenly creatures into heavenly places and mansions, where they shall
live with him for ever; for the grossly carnal, such as the whoremongers
and unclean are, they are possessed by an unclean spirit, which hurrieth
them violently into hell, as he did the swine into the great deep ; and
they are making themselves more meet company every day for the
devil and his angels.
[6.] This exclusion is so absolute and peremptory that it admits no
exception but that of sincere repentance, which is both a change of
heart and life. For the present the exclusion standeth in force against
you, like the flaming sword that guarded paradise ; but your case is
not remediless, because Christ is an all-sufficient saviour, and his
sacrifice for sin so full and valuable that nothing can hinder you from
pardon and salvation but your own impenitency and unbelief. Cer
tainly this may be done, for this hath been done after a like sentence
and denunciation, that no whoremongers have inheritance in the king
dom of God : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' But such were some of you ; but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' It giveth some hope to a
sick man when like deadly diseases have been cured. Surely an ocean
can cleanse one nasty sink, and an emperor's revenue can pay a beggar's
debt. Your case is foul, but it admitteth of this change ; and if yon
yield to it at last, you may be accepted at last, after all your great and
heinous sins. The covenant of grace doth promise pardon and salvation
to every penitent believer whenever they truly turn to God, without
excepting any person in the world ; only you must look that your
218 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. V.
repentance be sincere, and that there be a thorough change of heart
and life. No other repentance is true but a quitting and leaving these
sins before they leave us. Three things are apt to deceive you
(1.) Some trouble for these sins while you go on still to commit
them. There is no question but conscience will smite when the sin is
past, and the fog that blinded the mind begins to be dissipated, and
reason recovereth the throne again ; it will pierce the heart with sharp
reflections because appetite and lust have been preferred before it. All
unclean persons are not past feeling, nor have gotten the victory of
conscience ; but though the soul be scourged with some remorse, yet
as often as the temptation returneth they are still carried away, as
marsh land is drowned with the return of every tide. Therefore in
repentance it is not enough that there be sorrow for the sin, but there
must be a forsaking and leaving of it : Prov. xxviii. 13, ' Whoso con-
fesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy.' These great and
heinous sins must be forsaken, or else we are wicked men. Ahab wept
for Naboth, 1 Kings xxi. 29, yet afterwards imprisoned Micaiah.
Saul with tears confesseth his injustice to David, yet continueth to
persecute him, 1 Sam. xxiv. 16, and xxvi. 2. There is repenting and
sorrowing for sin in hell. The repentance is never sound till the heart
be so turned from sin that it may be turned against it. If we have
smarted for eating forbidden fruit, we must meddle no more : Ps. li. 6,
* In the hidden part shalt thou make me to know wisdom.' Broken
bones must make us wary and cautious.
(2.) The next thing that will deceive you is some faint resistance or
striving against sin, but it groweth upon you. There are some sins
where striving is conquering, as in the case of infirmities that we can
not wholly get rid of in this life ; but in the case of heinous sins it is
otherwise ; they must not only be striven against, but left, otherwise no
difference between godly and ungodly. The conatus, the endeavour,
is not enough ; the eventus, the event or issue, is considerable. If a
man live in gross sins though he hath strivings and convictions, and
ineffectual wishes to be better and to turn to God, this showeth he doth
sin against conscience, and resist the Spirit, that should turn him from
these sins : 1 Peter iv. 1, ' Arm yourselves likewise with the same
mind ; for he that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.' Christ
had his innocent reluctances, but his love to God and men broke
through all. Take heed of being rebellious against the importunities of
grace. Such sins must not only be resisted, but conquered. A
usurper may reign though there be much contradiction. Turn the
tables. Should the feeble oppositions of sin against the life and reign
of grace make the saints question their sincerity ? Why then should
this ineffectual striving acquit you from the reign of sin ? It is not
enough to disuse sin, but he must mortify it also.
(3.) That which will deceive you is a hope to cry God mercy upon
your death-beds ; and so, after an impure life, men hope still to go to
heaven. We do not wholly exclude a death-bed repentance (if it be
sincere, and we do it at last) ; it is possible, though men have but so
little time left. It is great folly, as well as wickedness, to put it off till
then ; yet if God renew you by his Holy Spirit, you shall be accepted.
But all the business is to prove it sincere ; for how shall we know
VEK. 5.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 219
whether our repentance cometh from fear or love ? What cometh from
fear will die again when your fear is over. God hath not your hearts
till he hath your love. Now this sensible death-bed work is hard, not
only for the most skilful about you, but for yourself, to discern from
what cause it cometh, whether you are frightened into an unsound
repentance, or be effectually and sincerely turned from sin to God,
whether your heart and will be changed or not. Alas ! it is easy to
renounce arid detest sin when we can keep it and cherish it no longer,
and it is the mere fruit of necessity and fear. Besides, what hope of
this, when we are contented to live longer in a course of known foul
sin, provided at length we may be saved ? To live a sinful life against
conviction of conscience bringeth on final and judicial hardness.
[7.] If the children of God fall into any of these sins, they lose not
their right, but their present fitness, to enter into the kingdom of God
and Christ. When you hear or read such a saying as the text, a doubt
may arise in your mind, What then shall become of Samson, David,
and Solomon ? I answer
(1.) One act doth not denominate a man, but habits ; such cannot
be called whoremongers. The reign of sin in the heart cannot consist
with a right to heaven: Kom. viii. 13, 'If ye live after the flesh, ye
shall die ; ' that is, in a course of sin.
(2.) They lose their fitness : Gal. v. 21, ' They that do these things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' Our divines at Dort, by the
leper who was to dwell apart, say that he lost not his right in his
house, but his fitness to dwell in it for the present. Sins are bound in
heaven till repentance. They need a new pardon, though they are not
put into a state of condemnation again, nor their former justification
nullified. Infirmities have pardon of course : John xiii. 10, ' He that
is washed needeth not save to wash his feet.' But great and known
sins must have actual repentance before they can be pardoned ; they
must be confessed and forsaken.
Use. Let sinners propound this to their choice, either these sins must
Ije laid aside, or the kingdom of God must be lost. It is the highest
profaneness this, to sell the birthright, Heb. xii. 6, to forfeit our
glorious inheritance for a little brutish satisfaction. Will you for
your unclean delights forsake the delight of angels, and choose the
filthy pleasures of sin before the pleasures at God's right hand for ever
more ? The very punishment showeth the nature of the sin, which is
loving pleasure more than God.
To quicken the children of God to avoid all uncleanness and ten
dency to it. You should check temptations to sin, and strive for an
abundant entrance : 2 Peter i. 11, ' Give diligence to make your
calling and election sure, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.' Keason with yourselves, as it is said of the trees in
Jotham's parable/ Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they
honour God and man, to be promoted over the trees ? Should I for
sake my sweetness, and my good fruit, to be promoted over the trees ?
Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be
promoted over the trees?' So should you repel all temptations to sin,
and abstain from all appearances of evil.
220 SEKMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VI.
SERMON YL
Let no man deceive you witli vain words for because of these things
comelh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
EPH. v. 6.
THE apostle had argued ab incongruo, from what was indecent and
misbecoming in us ; now a periculo, from the danger of such practices.
There is pama damni, the punishment of loss, exclusion from the
kingdom of God ; and poena sensus, the punishment of sense, the
hazard of God's eternal wrath and displeasure : ' Let no man deceive
you,' &c.
In the text we have two things
1. A caution, ' Let no man deceive you with vain words/
2. A commination, ' For because of these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience.'
First, The caution is against error, and showeth the certainty of their
punishment, whatever false teachers whispered to the contrary. This
is premised that we may neither deceive ourselves nor suffer ourselves
to be deceived by others.
1. That we may not deceive ourselves. Frequent warnings are given
against this self-flattery : 1 Cor. vi. 9, 'Be not deceived; neither forni-
cators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of them
selves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God ; ' 1 John
iii. 7, ' Little children, let no man deceive you ; he that doeth right
eousness is righteous ; ' 1 Cor. xv. 33, ' Be not deceived ; evil communi
cation corrupts good manners ; ' Gal. vi. 7, ' Be not deceived ; God is
not mocked : for what a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' Men do
what they can to live securely and undisturbedly in their sins, and
to guard their hearts against the apprehension of all danger and
punishment.
2. That we may not be deceived by others. There were false teachers
in those early days, that countenanced profane and licentious Christians ;
some that taught fornication was an indifferent thing, or at least no such
great matter, or not so dangerous ; that a man might be righteous, and
yet live in sin ; that a bare profession of faith without a strict life was
enough to salvation ; which poison was greedily sucked up by careless
Christians, who were convinced of the truth of Christianity, but as yet
had no power to overcome their lusts. It is strange that such gross
conceits should possess their minds. But there is that which the apostie
calleth ' a reprobate sense or mind,' Rom. i. 28. There is such an efficacy
of error and deception in our corrupt natures, that men soon hear in this
ear, and please themselves with the thoughts of impunity, though they
live in gross sins : 2 Peter ii. 18, ' They allure through the lusts of the
flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from
them who live in error.'
Secondly, A denunciation of God's wrath, ' Because of these things
cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.' You have
it again, Col. iii. 6.
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 221
In which words observe
1. The evil denounced, ' The wrath of God cometh/
2. The meritorious procuring cause, ' For these things.'
3. The persons, or proper seat and subject of his vengeance, ' Upon
the children of disobedience.'
1. The evil denounced, ' The wrath of God cometh ; ' meaning by
* wrath,' punishment from God, who is angry and displeased with these
sins. And it is said, 'it cometh;' it is an allusion to a thing that falleth
from a higher place, and crusheth those upon whom it falleth. So this
wrath is said to be poured down upon them from heaven : Ps. xi. 6,
' Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible
tempest ; this shall be the portion of their cup ;' that is, their judg
ment shall be terrible, irresistible, and remediless. So Kom. i. 18, ' For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' They
cannot make a wall against heaven to keep off that which shall come
upon them from thence.
2. The meritorious procuring cause, ' For these things,' fornication,
uncleanness, and such like gross sins. God is not severe upon ordinary
failings and frailties, but these sins are of another nature.
3. The persons upon whom this vengeance cometh ; it shall light
* upon the children of disobedience/ What children of disobedience
signifieth I shall show anon. Some by it here understand infidels, as
if that were the argument : How could these things be tolerable in
Christians, when they were the sins for which God plagued the heathens
or infidels ? Or rather, take the common sense ; children of disobedi
ence are such as live in an open defiance of God's precepts, and will by
no means be reclaimed, and forsake their sins, or be persuaded to seek
after God, and his healing and renewing grace. And so it teacheth us
two notes
[1.] Those that are given to these sins are to be reckoned among the
children of disobedience, or accounted rebels to God. Though they be
Christians in name, yet they are heathens, profane Christians, that never
heartily obeyed the gospel, nor thoroughly renounced their heathenish
impurities : ' As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according
to the former lusts of your ignorance,' 1 Peter i. 14. Tkicva vTratcofis,
4 obedient children/ are opposite to these vlov? 1% avre^e/a?, 'children
of disobedience,' that profess obedience, and yet relapse into their old
practices.
[2.] That the wrath of God lighteth not upon them that have once
fallen into these sins, or it may be often, in their unregeneracy, but
afterwards repent and return to an holy life, but upon the 'children of
disobedience/ that remain obstinate and impenitent, and will not be
reduced from this impure course of living.
Doct 1. That all those words which promise impunity or immunity
from the wrath of God to gross open sinners are vain words.
They are vain, because they cannot make good what they promise,
being expressly both against the light of nature and scripture. And
here I shall inquire
1. What are the vain words wherewith sinners usually deceive
themselves.
222 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VI.
2. How it cometh to pass that such gross self-flattery can ever pos
sess their minds.
I. What are the vain words or pretences by which they usually
harden their hearts ?
1. That God will not call them to an account, or punish them for
their sins. That there is such a thought in their minds appeareth
plainly in their actions to any discerning beholder: Zeph. i. 12, 'I wilt
search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled
upon their lees, that say in their hearts, The Lord will not do good,
neither will he do evil.' There are implicit thoughts and explicit
thoughts ; explicit thoughts are what we actually and inwardly conceive
in our minds, and do expressly think of ; implicit thoughts are the latent
principles which lurk in our hearts, which, though they do not bubble
up into actual thoughts and opinions, yet secretly govern us and taint
our actions. And these are usually called in the scripture, ' Saying in
their hearts,' and are known by interpreting and running up our actions
into their proper principle ; for man being a reasonable creature, it is
supposed that all he doth is influenced by some reasonings of his
mind, either more close or reserved, or more apparent and open.
And now, though we in bashfulness and unconfidence of their truth
for a while suppress our principles, yet their force and influence
is too discernible in our actions. As, for instance, men that live
securely in open sins, condemned not only by the light of scripture
but nature, surely they are influenced by this thought, that either
there is no God, or that he is careless of human affairs, and will not
call them to an account whether they do good or evil : Ps. xxxvi. 1,
' The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is
no fear of God before his eyes ; ' that is, their lewd life showeth that
they have no reverence of God, and plainly bespeaketh this thought
in their mind and observation, that either they think there is no God,
or that he is a senseless idol, and taketh no notice of human affairs so
as to call men to any account for them ; for what could they do more
wickedly if they were professedly leavened and plainly possessed with
these opinions ? But these are but vain words ; for if there be no
God, how could things fall into this order and proportion wherein
we see them? Scripture and nature, reason and conscience, will
tell thee there is a God. Look within thee, without thee, upward,
downward, round about thee, everything thou seest, nearest, and
feelest, proclaimeth a God to thee. And if there be a God, doth
he not take notice of what men do ? Surely there is such a thing
as good and evil, vice and virtue, sin and holiness ; the one worthy
of blame, the other of praise. If it be not so, whence is it that we all
affect to be counted honest and good ; to seem so at least, if we have
no mind to be so ? The most wicked are offended to be taken for
such as they are, and endeavour to cover their vices with the appear
ance of virtue and goodness. If all things were utterly indifferent in
their own nature, it were no more crime for a man to kill his father than
his neighbour's dog, or to rob and murder men in the woods than to
hunt a hare, to lie and forswear in our dealings than to be honest,
just, and sincere. Surely there is a God, and there is moral good and
evil ; and if it be so, will not God punish the evil and reward the
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 223
good? If you think he will not, it is because he hath no right, or no
power, or no will to do it. You cannot say no right, because man is
his creature, and therefore his subject. You cannot say no power, for
our life is in his hands. Now if he will not trouble himself with
human affairs, or mind what is done here below, if he is neither pleased
with our good deeds nor angry with our offences, why then hath he
made a law with a sanction ? This is against all sense, reason, and
experience. It is against the purity of his holy nature that he should
be indifferent to good or evil, and wholly connive at the disorders of
mankind. How then can we pray to him for mercies, or praise him
for benefits ? Or could there be any such thing in men towards God
as fear and hope ; fear that God will avenge their misdoings, or hope
that he will support them in a righteous cause ? Which yet is against
the universal sentiment of all mankind and common experience ; for
God doth daily make known himself by punishments and benefits:
Heb. ii. 2, ' For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward/
&c. ; Eom. i. 18, ' But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ; ' Acts xiv. 17,
' He left not himself without a witness, in that he did good, and gave
us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food
and gladness.' We see the effects of his wrath in pestilences, tem
pests, inundations, and of his goodness in fruitful seasons. Therefore
why will you cherish such vain thoughts, as if God would never call
you to an account, when he is known by the judgments which he
executeth daily?
2. That God will be merciful to them ; though they sin against
him, they shall notwithstanding escape well enough ; that he will not
be severe against his creatures. But you reflect but upon one part
of God's nature, his mercy, without his holiness and justice, and so
fancy an unreasonable indulgence in God. You lessen his holiness :
Ps. 1. 21, ' Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy
self.' They feign God to be what they would have him to be, and
judge of his goodness by their own interest. A good man is troubled
and grieved and offended with the impurities of others : 2 Peter ii. 7, 8,
' And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the
wicked ; for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and
hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful
deeds.' And yet a good man is but a partaker of the divine nature,
hath but some strictures of it. Besides, you overlook his justice,
which belongeth to his office as governor of the world, as if he would
be merciful however men are qualified.
But doth not God deal with us in pure mercy, without any respect
to qualifications ?
I answer We must distinguish between the mercy which God
exerciseth as a free lord, and the mercy which he exerciseth as a
righteous governor. The one is spoken of Horn. ix. 16, ' So then, it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy.' The other, 1 Cor. ix. 24, 'So run that you may
obtain.' There is a mercy that he showeth in converting some as a
free lord, and a mercy that he showeth as a righteous governor, in
224 SERMOXS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. VI.
rewarding and punishing. The first is not that you depend upon, for
you are yet in your sins, and care not to come out of them ; and the
second you cannot presume of, that you shall find mercy though you
go on in your sins ; for God, that is arbitrary in his gifts, is not so in
his judgments. Mercy is for the support of the penitent. There is a
duty God requireth of us before we can expect it from him : Isa. Iv. 7,
* Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts ; and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy ;
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' It is their cordial
and thy poison : Ps. Ixviii. 20, 21, ' He that is our God is a God of
salvation ; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But
God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such
an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.' Besides, you abuse God's
mercy, and put it to the worst use, when you think it shall spare all
and pardon all : Jude 4, ' Turning the grace of God into lascivious-
ness.' They only make a dung-cart of God's mercy to carry away all
their filth ; for God will show mercy only to true penitents : Ps. cxxx. 7,
* Let Israel hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with
him there is plenteous redemption.' Mercy is wrested from its proper
use to increase our carnal security and boldness in sinning, and not to
invite us to return to God. Well, then, according to rule, licentious
persons cannot expect mercy, or they that impenitently live in a course
of sin hope that they shall escape his vindictive justice.
3. That they are Christians, and by external profession have received
the faith of Christ. But the name will not save you without the
power : 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' And let every one that nameth the name of
Christ depart from iniquity.' Christ came to save sinners, but from
their sins, not in their sins : Mat. i. 21, ' He shall save his people from
their sins.' And you mistake the nature of faith if you think it lieth
in a strong confidence, and freedom from trouble for sin. No ; it is a
hearty consent of subjection to Christ. He is not the best Christian
that hath least trouble, but the least cause for it. Otherwise to wink
hard, and shut our eyes against all knowledge of Christian duty and
obedience, would make the best faith. No ; this is a purifying as well
as a comforting grace : Acts xv. 9, ' Purifying their hearts by faith.'
And they are the best Christians where Christ performeth most of his
office in turning them to God : Acts iii. 26, ' God having raised up
his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you
from his iniquities.'
4. That none is perfect, and the rarest saints have fallen into as
great faults, and so are persuaded that these gross sins are but frailties
und human infirmities. Si David, cur non et ego ? If David fell,
why may not I ? was an old excuse in Salvian's time. They fell into
sin, but did they wallow and lie in it ? Will you live in sin, because
in some rare case some of God's choicest servants have fallen into it ?
Is the rest of your lives like theirs ? Did not they smart grievously
for these sins ? and was not their repentance as remarkable as their
fall ? Surely there is a difference between imperfection and wicked
ness, as there is between falling by the stumbling of an horse into the
mire, and wallowing therein in our drunkenness, or between the
drowning of fields in a land-flood, and their being overflown by every
tide.
YER. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 225
5. Others say they are justified, and depend on the righteousness of
Christ. You may, if you have a right to it ; but, 1 John iii. 7, ' He
that doeth righteousness is righteous.' Where Christ is made right
eousness, he is also made sanctification : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' But of him are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and right
eousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' You have very great
cause to doubt of your justification when you constantly live in sin.
There are some sins which are not consistent with sincerity and an
interest in Christ's righteousness ; otherwise there were no distinction
between the godly and the ungodly : but the scripture tells us the
distinction is clear and manifest : 1 John iii. 10, ' In this the chil
dren of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever
doeth not righteousness, is not of God.' It is strange and groundless
arguing, I am justified, therefore my sins of oppression, drunkenness,
fornication, &c., shall do me no harm ; but it is sound arguing, I live
in ordinary wilful heinous sins, therefore I am not justified or sincere,
nor can I by the laws of Christianity look upon myself such, the scrip
ture witnesses, as shall obtain acceptance with God.
6. That if they be in an unjustified estate for the present, they hope
they shall repent at last, and then they will leave off their sins, and cry
God mercy. But you live in flat disobedience to God for the present :
Heb. iii. 7, ' The Holy Ghost saith, To-day, if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.' And besides, you only presume of future
grace out of self-love, but can be content that God be dishonoured longer,
provided that at length you may be saved. And besides, you leave a
necessary indispensable duty to great uncertainties. God may take
you away in the next act of sin, as he took away Zimri and Cosbi, and
Korah and his accomplices, and so leave you no space to call for mercy ;
or you may be smitten with an apoplexy, lethargy, or some stupid disease,
that shall take away all opportunity of making your peace with God.
If we were sure of repentance, it is great folly to play the mountebank
with our own souls, and give ourselves a deadly wound to try the strength
of a plaster or sovereign unguent ; or drink poison, and contract a sur
feit, in expectation to remove the distemper by a vomit. The presum
ing delayers are usually given up to hardness of heart, so as that they
never repent : Gen. vi. 3, ' My Spirit shall not always strive with man.'
Therefore to defer the forsaking of wilful sins and known enormities is
to run a desperate hazard in the most momentous case. The grieved
Spirit may at length be tired and wearied out, and you may grow more
sottish and blockish every day. Therefore these are but vain words.
7. That they do make amends for a course of sin in one kind by
abounding in other duties ; as some that live in uncleanness will be
charitable, hoping to expiate the offences of a filthy life by charity, and
so make alms a sin-offering, which should be a thank-offering : Heb.
xiii.16, ' But to do good and to communicate forget not ; for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased.' So some will be just, and do no wrong,
yet cannot deny their intemperance : Ezek. xxxiii. 13, 'If he trust in
his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall
not be remembered ; ' that is, upon that account, or presumption of his
other righteousness and good qualities. The apostle taxeth this want
of entire and uniform obedience : Eom. ii. 22, ' Thou that abhorrest
VOL. XIX. P
226 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. VI.
idols, dost thou commit sacrilege ? ' The Jews' form was abhorring
idols ; but they were entangled in a crime as enormous, and robbed God
"of his offerings. Most men's goodness is but to hide their secret indul
gence to some other lewd practice or sinful course wherein they live.
I say, to hide it, not only from the world, but their own hearts, as if
our delinquency in some things might be excused by a supererogation
in other duties ; as the Jews hoped to repair their want of mercy by a
multitude of sacrifices ; as the stomach, when it hath no solid food,
filleth itself with wind. But God will be obeyed in all things : ' God
spake all these words,' Exod. xx. 1. The same authority that forbids
stealing forbids adultery ; therefore we must be complete in all the will
of God. These are some of the sorry fig-leaves by which men hope to
cover their nakedness, those sandy foundations upon which they build
their hopes.
II. The reasons how it cometh to pass that such gross self-flattery
can possess their minds. Though it be as plain as noon -day that they
that live in gross sins shall be damned, yet the most profane have good
thoughts of their condition.
1. The causes lie in themselves ; as
[1.] Self-love, which is very partial, and loath to think of the evil of
our condition : Prov. xvi. 2, ' All the ways of man are clean in his own
eyes ; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.' Alas ! few bring their actions
to the balance of the sanctuary, and desire to know the worst by them
selves.
[2.] Unbelief of God's word and divine promises and threatenings.
Unbelief and obstinate impenitency always go together. God hath his
word, and they have their word. Now rather than believe God's word,
they will put it to the venture and trial, whose word shall stand, God's
or theirs ? Jer. xliv. 28, ' And all the remnant of Judah, that are gone
into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall
stand, mine or theirs ; ' that is to say, which shall be fulfilled and made
good, their foolish confidence or God's threatenings ?
[3.] Non-attendance to God's warnings, if they are not guilty of ex
press unbelief: Mat. xxii. 5, 'But they made light of it ;' Eccles. v. 1,
' Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be more
ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools ; for they consider not
that they do evil ; ' compared with Acts xvi. 14, ' Whose heart the Lord
opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.'
[4.] Non-application : Job v. 27, ' Lo ! this, we have searched it ; hear
it, and know it for thy good ; ' Rom. viii. 31, ' What shall we say to
these things ? ' Jer. viii. 6, ' No man repented him of his wickedness,
saying, What have I done ? ' Now when men neither believe, nor
consider, nor apply, no wonder if self-love carrieth it ; and in the greatest
soul-dangers they flatter themselves into a fool's paradise, that they
shall do well enough though they live in their sins.
2. The devil joineth with our self-love, and lulleth us asleep in our
carnal security and abuse of grace : Gen. iii. 4, 5, ' And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die ; for God doth know that
in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil.' In the first temptation he per
emptorily denieth the terror of the curse, as if it were a vain scarecrow.
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 227
As the cunning huntsman playeth least in sight till the beast be gotten
into the snare and toil ; all is hushed and quiet, and then he appeareth
with shouts and outcries ; so Satan glutteth men with carnal delights,
and taketh care their pleasures be not disturbed with any thoughts of
the world to come, or serious minding of their danger, till they are past
remedy, and then torments with despairing fears as much as he hard
ened us before with presumptuous thoughts of mercy. He that now
tempts you to disobey the command, at death or sickness will tempt
you to distrust the promise.
3. He stirreth up instruments, that, with the charms of false doc
trine, he may hinder the sight of sin and fears of judgment, and strengthen
the hands of the wicked : Jer. xxiii. 17, ' They say still unto them that
despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace ; and they say
unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No
evil shall come upon you.' They confirm people in their wickedness,
and keep them from repentance, by bearing them in hand, that God
will be merciful to them ; and if they can but trust in the merits of
Christ, or God's mercy, they are safe. These are those that are said to
'daub with untempered mortar,' Ezek. xiii. 10, and to 'sew pillows under
men's arms,' ver. 18 ; that is, lull men asleep in their sins. The church
of God hath ever been troubled with such unskilful and unfaithful guides,
and daubers with untempered mortar; and they are found in every
party that delude poor drossy unsanctified souls with promises of peace
and pardon, and by loose strains of grace hinder their conversion.
Use. Let no man deceive you.
1. It is sure you are not justified while you are yet in your sins. Men
are first regenerated and then pardoned: Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open their
eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of
Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sin.' Till you are
converted you cannot determine your right. So in the golden chain,
sanctification is one necessary link. It is not omitted by the apostle,
but included in one of the things there mentioned: Rom. viii. 30,
' Whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called,
them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.'
Sanctification is included in effectual calling ; there is initial sanctifica
tion, and the progress of it is in the word ' glorified,' for it is a part
of glory. You cannot imagine God can err in judgment ; and justi
fication is an act of judgment, as condemnation is ; he deemeth and
accounteth none just but those who are really changed. There is
sententia legis and sententia judicis, the sentence of the law and the
sentence of the judge ; the sentence of the law is justification constitu
tive, the sentence of the judge is justification declarative.
2. How much God is concerned to right himself, the honour of his
providence, and the truth of his word, against such as flatter themselves
in their sins : Deut. xxix. 19, 20, ' And it come to pass when he heareth
the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall
have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add
drunkenness to thirst : the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger
of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord
shall blot out his name from under heaven.' When men excuse or
228 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [&ER. VI.
extenuate the greatest sins, and the danger of them, when they think
light of them, or presume of impunity, God is concerned to vindicate
himself.
Doct. 2. It should deter us from wilful and heinous sins to think of
the wrath of God that shall come upon those that live in them.
First, It is a powerful motive ; for God's wrath is very terrible. It
is God's anger makes us truly miserable, and not man's. God is our
supreme 3udge, and God liveth for ever. Man's anger is finite and
limited : Heb. x. 31, ' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God/ The great and mighty men are afraid of this : Rev. vi.
15-17, ' The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men,
and the chief captains, and the mighty men, shall hide themselves in
dens, and in the rocks of the mountains ; and say to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : for the great day of his wrath
is come, and who shall be able to stand ? ' and the thing itself showeth
it. Consider
1. The intension of this wrath. It is compared to a ' consuming
fire/ Heb. xii. 29. It is a fire that burneth, not only to the ground or
the surface of the earth, but to the lowest hell : Deut. xxxii. 22, ' For
a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell ; '
that should not only manifest itself by visible judgments in the world,
but invisible and unknown judgments in the world to come. There is
often a standing out against God by our obstinacy and rebellion ; but
there is no standing before him when his anger is kindled but a little.
It can not only destroy the body, and those bodily things which gratify
it, but it can light upon the conscience and the souls of men. Here if
but a spark of his wrath light upon the conscience, what a burden are
men to themselves?
2. As to extension ; the wrath of God compriseth all those evils
which are the fruit of sin, be they bodily or spiritual, in life or death, or
after death. It is said, Deut. xxix. 21, ' The Lord shall separate him
unto evil ; ' ver. 27, ' The anger of the Lord was kindled against- this
land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book/ The
book of the law is full of curses to the sinner ; it hath a mouth to speak
terrible things. But, Deut. xxviii. 61, 'And also every sickness, and
every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will
the Lord bring upon thee until thou be destroyed/ What is written
or unwritten, revealed in the word or dispensed in providences, by way
of plague or punishment, that is included in the wrath of God.
3. For duration ; the wrath of God ' abideth ' on the impenitent,
John iii. 36, and that not for a while, but ' for ever/ We despise God
who is an infinite good, and forsake eternal happiness for a little tem
poral delight ; and therefore the punishment is eternal. A wound may
be received in an instant that is never healed. A man may suddenly
slip into a pit out of which he shall never recover ; he may be in a
moment bound with a chain that shall never be loosed. Now can we
remain in carnal security whilst this wrath of God hangeth over our
heads ?
Secondly, It is a kindly motive. That is a question whether it be
so or no, therefore let us state the matter.
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 229
1. We are principally to avoid sin as sin and as displeasing to God:
Gen. xxxix. 9, ' How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against
God? ' If we see not the evil of sin in itself as well as in the effects,
we may be tempted to think God is unjust in over-punishing it. And
true repentance lieth in hating sin as sin, for the evil that is in it as
well as after it, as it is a repugnancy to God's will, or a transgression
of his law.
2. We must abstain from it, as it will bring down wrath and judg
ment upon us. So God urgeth this argument, Ezek. xviii. 30, ' Repent,
and turn yourselves from all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not
be your ruin.' Not only our obligations to God should hold us to our
duty, but our fear of his dreadful displeasure.
3. The pcena damni, to fear the punishment of loss, is out of ques
tion. Timor separationis a Deo includitur in charitate A man can
not love God and not fear the loss of his favour. To a gracious heart
this is more grievous than all the fire and brimstone of hell. The soul
that placeth its happiness in acceptance with God, and the enjoyment
of God, is afraid to lose him : 2 Cor. v. 8, ' We are confident, I say,
and willing, rather to be absent from the body, and present with the
Lord ; ' 1 Cor. ix. 27, ' Lest that by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a castaway.'
4. The poena sensus, the punishment of sense, is necessary also to
quicken men to their duty, and to guard their love, and to show that
God doth not make little reckoning of sin ; for, 2 Cor. v. 11, 'Know
ing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men/ This is necessary in
case of great deadness and numbness of conscience, and especially when
a man is apt to miscarry by boisterous temptations, such as great fears
and passionate and pleasing lusts. Fears: Luke xii. 4, 5, 'Be not
afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that
they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear : Fear
him which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I
say unto you, Fear him.' As one nail driveth out another, so the fear
of God driveth out the fear of men and pleasing lusts : Eom. viii. 13,
' If you live after the flesh, ye shall die.'
5. The effect which it must produce is not such a fear as driveth us
from God, but bringeth us to him ; not torment, and perplexity, and
despairing anguish (1 John iv. 18, ' Fear hath torment '), but flight
and caution. We ought to represent it as a great evil, from whence
we must fly by faith and repentance : Mat. iii. 7, ' Who hath warned
you to flee from the wrath to come ?' and Heb. vi. 18 ; to quicken us
in our flight to Christ, and taking sanctuary at the grace of the gospel ;
and to engage us to more thankfulness for our deliverance by Christ :
1 Thes. i. 10, ' And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised
from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come ; '
and so keep at a distance from those things that may bring the wrath
of God upon us.
6. Punishments on others are for our warning. When God's judg
ments are upon others for sin, his hand is to be observed with great
reverence; as David: Ps. cxix. 119, 120, 'Thou puttest away all the
wicked of the earth like dross : my flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and
I am afraid of thy judgments.' Naturalists say a lion will tremble to
230 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VI.
see a dog beaten before him : Ps. Hi. 6, ' The righteous shall see, and
fear, and shall laugh at him.' It is observable in the text, he doth
not say the wrath of God shall come upon you, but upon ' the children
of disobedience ; ' for he speaketh to the Ephesians as believers, or
persons justified and sanctified. And it teacheth us that the dreadful
wrath of God, that lighteth on reprobates, is for our warning. Though
we do not look upon it as the portion of our cup, yet we must look upon
it as debitum peccati, as an evil that God doth inflict for such sins ;
therefore that sin ought to be shunned by the saints. God scourgeth
and punisheth the wicked in our sight, that the regenerate may make
use of their experience, and by their dying horrors, when they come
to feel the effects of these sins, may tremble the more, and abhor those
sins which are so displeasing to God.
Use. To teach us in what rank to place principles of obedience.
There are several principles by which men are acted and influenced.
1. Some are false and rotten; as custom : Zech. vii. 3, 'As I have
done these so many years.' Vainglory : ' To be seen of men,' Mat.
vi. 1. Kapine: Mat. xxiii. 14, 'To devour widows' houses.' Envy:
Phil. i. 15, 16, ' Some preach Christ out of envy and strife, and some
also out of good will : the one preach Christ out of contention, not
sincerely.'
2. Some are more tolerable ; as the hope of temporal mercies : Hosea
vii. 14, ' They have not cried unto me with their hearts when they
howled upon their bed : they assemble themselves for corn and wine.'
Fear of temporal judgments : Isa. Iviii. 5, ' Is it such a fast that I have
chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head
as a bulrush, to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? Wilt thou
call this a fast, and an acceptable day unto the Lord ? ' Jer. ii. 26, ' As
the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed ; '
frightened into a little religiousness, when death is at their backs : Ps.
Ixxviii. 34, ' When he slew them, then they sought him, and they re
turned and inquired early after God.' To this rank I reckon also fear
of hell, when it is alone. They shall be damned ; all their duties are
a sin-offering, a sleepy sop to appease a guilty conscience ; all their
repentance is but attrition, not contrition.
3. Some are very good and sound ; as when duties are done out of
obedience to God, upon the urgings of an enlightened conscience, with
out the bent of a renewed heart ; for a regenerate man obeyeth not
only as enjoined, but inclined. The principle is sound in the other,
but the heart is not fitted. When a man considereth himself as a
creature bound to obey his creator, whether willingly or unwillingly,
he must do it : 1 Cor. ix. 16, 17, ' For though I preach the gospel, I
have nothing to glory of ; for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto
me if I preach not the gospel : for if I do this thing willingly, I have
a reward ; but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is com
mitted to me/ There is a bond of duty lying upon us. But now it
is better when it is enlarged and fitted by grace : Luke i. 74, 75, ' That
he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hands of
our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteous
ness before him all our days ; ' Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my laws into
their mind, and write them upon their hearts ; ' Ps. xl. 8, ' Thy law is
VER. 6.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 231
in my heart.' So fear of hell : ' Destruction from God was a terror to
me/ Job xxxi. 23. Hope of heaven : Heb. xi. 26, ' He had respect to
the recompense of reward.' Their state of happiness is a state of like
ness to God. These principles with others do well. So also thankful
ness and love to God : Kom. xii. 1, ' Present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service ; '
Titus ii. 11, ' The grace of God, which bringeth saltation to all men,
hath appeared,' &c. ; 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him, because he first
loved us.' The glory of God : 1 Cor. x. 31, ' Whether ye eat, or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Love to the work for
the work's sake, when holiness hath our very hearts : Ps. cxix. 140,
' Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.' And then
4. Some are rare and excellent ; as when we love God not only for
his benignity, but holiness, and eye our reward for his sake, and love
the glory of God above our own happiness, and can subordinate the
happy part of our eternal estate to his glory : Kom. ix. 3, ' For I could
wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren and
kinsmen according to the flesh.' Now we are brought from one prin
ciple to another, from rotten to tolerable, from tolerable to sound, from
sound to rare and excellent.
Doct. 3. That their condition is of all most miserable who are not
only sinners, but stubborn and obstinate in their sin. The wrath of
God cometh on the children of disobedience.
1. Who are the disobedient ? It may be said of two sorts First of
all, men in their natural condition with respect to the law : Rom. viii.
7, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be.' And, secondly, of those that
refuse the gospel : 2 Thes. i. 8, ' In flaming fire, taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and obey not the gospel ; ' 1 Peter iv. 17,
' What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel ? ' viz.,
those that will not submit themselves to God, or be persuaded to for
sake their sins.
2. Now as to the disobedient sinners (1.) They are slaves to sin :
Titus iii. 3, 'We were sometime foolish, disobedient, serving divers
lusts/ They do what their lusts bid them, are at the whistle of a
temptation ; but all the reasons in the world shall not persuade them
to do what God commandeth them. (2.) They are of the devil's
party : Eph. ii. 2. ' According to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience/ (3.) They
are rebels to God : Job xxiv. 13, ' They are of those that rebel against
the light ; they know not the ways thereof, they abide not in the paths
thereof.' They have light enough to condemn their practices, but yet
they live in them : ' Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? '
Ps. liii. 4. Their light hath no authority to bind them to their duty,
but rather irritateth their corruptions : ' They are a very froward gene
ration, children in whom is no faith/ Deut. xxxii. 20.
Use. Well, then, let us be none of these. A man may err and
straggle out of the way through ignorance, incogitancy, or being over
come by the violent incursion of a temptation, but let us have a care
of being children of disobedience. When we wander out of the way
of our duty, let us look to God's word for direction in our way, and
232 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VII.
follow the guidance of it ; as the wise men, that took a long journey to-
see Christ, followed the star that went before them, till it brought them
to the house where Christ was, Mat. ii. 9, 10. [See this more largely
handled in the next sermon.]
SERMON VII.
Be not ye therefore partakers ivith them. EPH. v. 7.
WE have handled in the 6th verse
1. A caution, ' Let no man deceive you with vain words.'
2. A denunciation, ' For these things' sake the wrath of God cometfo
upon the children of disobedience.'
Now I come to
3. A dissuasion ; this is in the text, and is inferred out of the former-
verse ; where we have
[1.] The evil dissuaded from, o-y/i^ero%ot avT&v, ' Be not partakers
with them/ that is, do not join with them in their evil ways, by com
mitting these and the like sins.
[2.] The reason, ' Therefore ; ' that is, because the wrath of God
cometh upon the children of disobedience, do not join in their sins,
that you may not be involved in their punishment ; as Eev. xviii. 4 r
' Be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.'
Doct. The dreadful estate of the children of disobedience should keep
us from joining with them in their evil ways.
Here let me show you (1.) Who are children of disobedience ; (2.)
The misery of their condition ; (3.) Why this should deter us from
being partakers with them.
I. Who are children of disobedience.
1. Those who are not only sinners, but stubborn, obstinate, and'
ignorant sinners ; such as are prone to all evil, and are not only
indisposed, but averse from all good. Both parts of the character
must be minded. They presently do what lust biddeth them, and are
at the beck of a temptation, but all the reasons in the world shall not
persuade them to do what God commandeth them. They are as wax
to Satan, but as a stone to God. They find an irresistible force in
temptations : Prov. vii. 21, 22, ' With her much fair speech she
caused him to yield ; with the flattery of her lips she forced him. He
goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a
fool to the correction of the stocks.' But as to good, they are not only
weak and indisposed, but cannot endure to be subject to God. The
more holy any creature is, the more readily does he obey God : Ps.
ciii. 20, ' Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that
do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word.' But for
others, a small matter serveth their turn ; neither promises nor threaten-
ings will gain them to their duty.
2. This good is either to be determined by the light of nature or the-
light of the gospel.
VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 235
[1.] Wicked men are called ' children of disobedience/ because they
rebel against the light of nature : Job xxiv. 13, ' They are of those
that rebel against the light ; they know not the way thereof, nor abide
in the paths thereof.' They have light enough to condemn their
practices, yet live in them : Ps. liii. 4, ' Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge ? ' Yes, they know better ; but the light hath no autho
rity to bind them to their duty, it doth rather irritate their corruptions,
than break the force of them; and therefore justly are they left to>
destruction : Ps. ix. 17, ' The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all
the nations that forget God.' They do not improve the natural
impressions of God, and the distinction of good and evil that is written?
upon their hearts ; they drown the voice of reason and conscience.
[2.] Those that have heard the gospel, and will not suffer themselves,
to be persuaded to embrace the blessed offers made therein, nor will
they give up themselves to the obedience of Christ. Their condition
is more terrible, for these are desperately sick, and refuse their remedy :
1 Peter iv. 17, ' For the time is come that judgment must begin at the
house of God ; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of
them that obey not the gospel of God ? ' Their condition is more
deplorable and desperate than that of other men ; for they will not
enter into the kingdom of God when invited thereunto, though they do*
so apparently need this healing dispensation. There are two things in
the gospel the doctrine of salvation, what God hath done on his part ;,
and the counsels of salvation, what we must do on our part.
(1.) The doctrine of salvation, or the rich preparations of grace
which God hath made for our recovery. On God's part, 'All things-
are ready,' Mat. xxii. 4. He hath given his Son to die for us, and to*
be the foundation of that new and better covenant wherein pardon and
life are offered to us. But this is coldly entertained by many ; either
they do not consider it : Mat. xxii. 5, ' They made light of it ; ' or they
do not believe it : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' For the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him ; neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ; ' or they
do not apply and improve this blessed offer, that it may be ' the gospel
of our salvation/ Eph. i. 13. There is not a cordial assent or lodging-
the truth in the soul : ' My word hath no place in you/ John viii. 37.
Whatever general profession there is made of believing this doctrine,,
there is no room for it in their hearts, they believe it not heartily sc*
as to affect it, and so as to build upon it for the saving of their souls.
It is not received by sound evidence, as is seen by the little influence
it hath upon them, by the doubts and questionings that frequently arise
in their minds whenever they are serious ; by their hatred of those that
seriously embrace this truth, by the scorn they cast upon those that
improve it to a holy conversation and godliness. Alas ! generally ife
is received in the Christian world, as it was said of the reports about
Christ's resurrection, as an idle tale or vain dream: Luke xxiv.
11, ' And their words seemed unto them as idle tales, and they believed
them not.' And the doctrines of Christ, heaven, and hell, and judgment
to come are made matter of scoffing and mockage : 2 Peter iiL
3, 'Knowing this, that there shall come in the last days _ scoffers,
walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his
coming ? ' and the root of men's disobedience is unbelief.
234 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VII.
(2.) The counsels of salvation, or what we must do on our part, that
we may partake of the righteousness and Spirit of Christ : Luke vii.
30, ' But the pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against
themselves.' There is the counsel which God giveth us, if we will have
sin pardoned and he eternally happy. Many look to what he hath done
for us ; hut they do not seriously consider what he hath required of
us. We are to obey the counsels of the gospel, as well as to believe
the doctrines of the gospel. Now what hath God required ?
(1st.) That we should believe in Christ as the redeemer of the world,
with such a faith as may make him precious to us, and value his grace
above all the world : 1 Peter ii. 7, 8, ' Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious : but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone
of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the
word, being disobedient, whereunto they were also appointed.' The
apostle divideth the hearers of the gospel into believers and disobed
ient ; and there he showeth what Christ is to believers, ' precious,' as
the alone refuge and sanctuary of distressed souls, who are ever
hungering and thirsting after Christ, and more of his renewing and re
covering grace. The other party are the disobedient, and to them he
is ' a stone of stumbling/ with allusion to them that travel by land,
and ' a rock of offence,' with respect to them that travel by sea. They
are loose and careless in this matter (we do not speak of every disobed
ience, but of wilful disobedience), they are ' a fro ward generation,' Deut.
xxxii. 20. Preach and say what we will, it moveth them not ; teach
them their duty, warn them of their danger, all is to no purpose ; they
still reject Christ, and despise his benefits, and refuse to take on them
his yoke, or embrace the noble and heavenly life. To the serious and
broken-hearted, he is their life, light, food, strength, righteousness, and
all ; but to others a fancy, or nothing. Believing in Christ is God's
great command : 1 John iii. 23, ' And this is his commandment, that
we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.' There
fore it is called ' the obedience of faith ; ' Bom i. 5, ' Made known to
all nations by the obedience of faith,' Bom xvi. 26 ; ' And bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,' 2 Cor. x. 4.
But the rebellious world little valueth God's authority ; they are so
addicted to paltry vanities, and their own will and lusts, that they
slight the offered Saviour, and all the grace he tendereth to them.
(2d.) Bepentance is another part of the counsel given to us. Christ
told his disciples what they should do to perform their charge : Luke
xxiv. 47, ' And that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations/ And the apostles pressed it
on all that would enter into the gospel kingdom : Acts ii. 38, ' And
Peter said unto them, Bepent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ;' Acts iii. 19, ' Bepent,
that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall
come from the presence of the Lord/ Now repentance implieth an
hearty detestation and renunciation of our former ways, whereby we
have offended God, and a serious dedication of ourselves to his use
and service. Now many regard not this, and though they hear their
personal sins reproved, and the curses of the law denounced against
VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 235
them, yet they hold on their course still, and cannot be persuaded to
leave those sins ; and when God would heal them, they will not be
healed, but are wholly led by their corrupt affections, and will not be
persuaded to abandon their bewitching lusts : 2 Chron. xxx. 8, ' Now
be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto
the Lord ; ' (Hebr. Give your hand unto the Lord). We press men
to return, and not keep God out of his right any longer ; but we do
but water a rock, and seek to mollify a flint, that yieldeth not ; nor will
they strike hands with God. We cannot bring it to a bargain or
thorough conclusion, so as to lay down the buckler, and say, ' Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do ? ' Acts ix. 6.
(3d) New obedience. This is part of the counsel of God to you if
you would be saved : Heb. v. 9, ' He is the author of eternal salvation
to them that obey him ; ' Isa. i. 19, ' If ye be willing and obedient, ye
shall eat the good of the land/ And grace teacheth us, Titus ii.
12, 'That, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.' We should be
sober as to the government of ourselves, righteous as to our carriage to
our neighbour, godly as to the Lord himself, not defrauding him of his
due worship, internal and external, love, trust, delight, reverence,
daily commerce with him in company and alone. Though we persuade
these things by the strongest and most cogent arguments, yet still
there are some that will be intemperate, incontinent, that will not live
soberly ; Christians that will not live soberly, that cannot bridle the
desires of the flesh ; unrighteous Christians, that will not make con
science of giving every one their due ; and ungodly persons that forget
God days without number. Though much of this duty be evident by
natural light, and necessary to preserve a comely order in human
society, yet neither restraints of conscience nor the laws of men or God
will keep them within the bounds of their duty ; but men will be dis
obedient still, and run out into many excesses and disorders, without
all shame, especially when they have habituated themselves to some
evil custom and practice : Jer. xiii. 23, ' Can the Ethiopian change
his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do evil.' Alas ! who is able then to preach away the
cup out of the drunkard's mouth, or wantonness out of the heart of
the unclean person ? Yea, to bring vain people to part with a fashion,
or a recreation, which hath often been a snare to them ? they are brought
under the power of these things, and cannot leave them. A child of
God may err and straggle out of his way through ignorance or iucogi-
tancy, or be overcome and borne down through the violent incursion of
a temptation. It fareth with them as with the wise men who came a
long journey to seek Christ ; when they went out of the way, the star
left them, but they stayed not there till the star appeared to them,
again. So God's people may straggle from their duty, but they do not
rest there. But the children of disobedience cannot cease from sin in
the several kinds wherein they are captivated : 2 Peter ii. 14, ' Having
eyes full of adultery, and cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable
.souls ; an heart they have exercised with covetous practices : cursed
children, they have forsaken the right way.' It is their element, out
<>f which they cannot rest.
236 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VIL
3. Tin's obstinacy and disobedience is aggravated
[1.] From the person who is disobeyed. It is not our counsel, but
God's. To weary and grieve men who do entreat them to forsake their
sins and seek after God, is ill, for they must give an account : Heb.
xiii. 17, ' Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit your
selves ; for they watch for your souls as they that must give account,
that they may do it with joy, and not with grief.' But that is not all:
Isa. vii. 13, 'Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye
weary my God also ? ' They rebel against God himself while they
shake off his authority : Ps. xii. 4, ' Who have said, With our tongue
we will prevail ; our lips are our own, who is lord over us ? ' and
refuse to accept his gracious offers : Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation ? ' It redounds to the contempt of
God, who hath provided such an excellent salvation for us in Christ.
You despise him that speaketh from heaven, as well as weary them
that speak on earth : Heb. xii. 25, ' See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh ; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that
speaketh from heaven/
[2.] From the manner of the persuasion, which is by the word and
Spirit. In the word there are the highest motives to allure, the
strongest arguments to persuade, the greatest terrors to scare men out
of their sins. For motives, God outbiddeth them that bid most for
your hearts ; he offereth you an eternal infinite happiness, both for
your bodies and souls. A little dreggy delight, profit, honour, or vain
pleasure is nothing to it ; it is not worthy to be compared with it. In
other cases we would take the best bargain ; here is life, and pleasure,
and honour, for evermore : Ps. xvi. 11, ' In thy presence is fulness of
joy ; and at thy right hand pleasures for evermore.' Here are the
strongest arguments to persuade God's authority : James iv. 12, ' There
is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.' Christ's love : 2
Cor. v. 14, ' The love of Christ constraineth us.' For terrors, God doth
not tell us of mean penalties, but of a pit without a bottom, a worm
that shall never die, a fire that shall never be quenched : Mark ix. 44,
'Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.' Is hell
a vain scarecrow, where the damned spirits are perpetually exercised
with a bitter remembrance of what is past, a sense of what is present,
and a fear of what is to come ? If all this will not work, what will
do ? Ps. Iviii. 4, 5, ' Their poison is like the poison of a serpent ; they
are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken
to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.' An allusion to
charming for the taming of serpents, which were used in those eastern
countries ; not to approve them, but to improve a vile practice. Men
will hold on their way, say God what he will to the contrary. See the
words of the prophet Jeremiah, chap. xiii. 11, ' But the people would
not hear.' But this is not all. The motions of the Holy Spirit go
along with it : Acts vii. 51, ' Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; ' ye
stop him in his sanctifying work, and refuse the help that God offers,
which maketh it the more heinous.
[3.] From the plenty of offers. God hath called often and long :
Prov. xxix. 1, ' He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall
VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 237
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.' It is dangerous to
slight frequent warnings ; these are obdurate in their sins.
[4.] From the concomitant dispensations of providence. When our
obstinacy and resolved continuance in sin is not broken by afflictions ;
as Pharaoh was Pharaoh still from first to last. Ahaz had a brand set
upon him : 2 Chron. xxviii. 22, ' And in the time of his distress did he
trespass yet more against the Lord ; this is that king Ahaz.' God may
break their backs by his judgments, but not their hearts : Prov. xxvii.
22, ' Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a
pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.' Spices bruised
and pounded are more fit for medicine, but these depart not from their
luxury, profaneness, and uncleanness, when they are not softened by
mercies : Isa. xxvi. 10, ' Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will
he not learn righteousness ; in the land of uprightness will he deal
unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.' God shall not
have their heart for all this ; they despise his goodness : Horn ii. 4.
* Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and
long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance ? '
4. This disobedience, the longer it is continued, the more it is
increased. There is a natural averseness from God. Take a man in
his pure naturals, he hath nothing to incline him to God; but the
longer we continue in it, we every day make ourselves seven times more
the children of hell. Still it increaseth till it come to the height of
senseless judicial hardness of heart : Zech. vii. 11, 12, ' But they refused
to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ear that
they should not hear ; yea, they have made their hearts as an adamant
stone, lest they should hear the law.' So still they grew more and
more disobedient.
II. The misery of their condition. It is either matter of sense or
matter of faith ; of sight, because of present judgments, or foresight,
because of the threatenings of the word.
1. It is matter of sight, as God doth inflict remarkable judgments
on obstinate sinners in this life, to teach his children to beware of their
sins. These judgments are either spiritual or temporal.
[1.] Spiritual. These men are in a miserable and voluntary servi
tude both to sin and Satan ; and both are the basest masters that any
one can have. To sin : Titus iii. 3, ' For we ourselves also were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and
pleasures.' They do all things which their lusts command, and
oannot by any reason be persuaded to shake off this yoke. The less
they feel this bondage in themselves, the more dangerous it is, and
the more they are obnoxious to it ; for then both will and mind
is oppressed, and they know no better things. They that are slaves
by force are not in so bad a condition as they that are slaves by consent,
that sell their souls, their religion, their God, their Christ, their happi
ness, their all, for a little brutish satisfaction, and are so governed by
their carnal affections that they know not how to come out of this
thraldom, but suffer the beast to ride the man, and have gotten such
an habit and course of sinning, that they are wholly enslaved by these
brutish pleasures, and cannot help it. To Satan : The other master
238 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. VII.
is the devil ; they are of his party and confederacy : Eph. ii. 2,
' Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
worketh in the children of disobedience.' Their hearts are Satan's shop
and proper workhouse, where his weapons of defiance are formed
against God. They carry on a defensive war, shutting up their hearts
against all his invitations to repentance and offers of grace, so that
God can get no entrance there. An offensive war, as they do not only
despise his offers, but hate his ways. Thus God hangeth up some in
chains of darkness for a warning to the rest.
[2.] Temporal judgments ; for the wrath of God that cometh on the
children of disobedience is not to be confined to the other world;
much of it cometh upon them here ; as when it is said, Heb. xiii. 4,
' Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge ; ' that is, punish, not
only eternally after this life if they repent not, but also temporally in
this life ; yea, though they may repent, as is evident in David, who,
though he repented, yet he suffered grievously for his adultery. If
God's own children will act the part of the children of disobedience,
they smart for it ; for this is necessary to prevent the taint of their
example in the world. Well, but these judgments are not lightly to
be passed over, especially when they are executed before our eyes, and
God cometh near and close to us, for they are the holy and righteous
dispensations of the wise God; not things casual, indeterminate, or
done at random, nobody knoweth by whom, or to what end and purpose.
You cannot imagine that a holy, just, and wise God should have no
end and scope in what he doth. The scripture calleth often God's
judgments ' his arrows.' Now these are not shot at rovers, as the man
that killed Ahab drew a bow at a venture. No ; God hath a certain
and steady aim at which he levelleth and directeth his shaft ; and God's
aim is our instruction. All his judgments are speaking lessons and real
warnings, that we may not involve ourselves in the same sins, and so in
the same punishment. They are appointed, not only for our admiration,
but our instruction : Zeph. iii. 7, ' I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou
wilt receive instruction.' God promiseth it to himself that the world will
not be so stupid as to run the hazard of the same fearful judgments
which have overtaken others : Deut. viii. 19, 20, ' I testify against you
this day, that you shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord
destroyeth before your face, because ye would not be obedient unto the
voice of the Lord ; ' Deut. xix. 20, ' And those that remain shall hear,
and fear, and henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.'
When any malefactor was executed, and found out by God's justice,
he expected they should make this use of it : Deut. xvii. 13, ' And all
the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.'
2. It is matter of faith and foresight. And so by this wrath of God
is meant eternal destruction, which cometh upon them for their dis
obedience, which is a sin of the highest nature, and a chief cause of
their damnation. At death they feel the sad effects of it : 1 Peter iii.
19, 20, ' By which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,
which were sometimes disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God
waited in the days of Noah.' They had God's word then, for Noah
was ' a preacher of righteousness,' 2 Peter ii. 5. They had the Spirit
then, for God saith, Gen. vi. 3, ' My Spirit shall not always strive with
VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 230
man.' Well, then, these children of disobedience, when their body is
sent to the grave, the soul is sent to hell ; which the psalmist expres-
seth by being torn in pieces : Ps. 1. 22, ' Lest I tear you in pieces, and
there be none to deliver.' So for the day of judgment : 2 Thes. i. 7, 8,
' The Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God,
and obey not the gospel.' The great business then is to convince the
reprobates of their disobedience. They see then how many warnings
and invitations they have despised ; so many sermons, so many stings
in the conscience. Those that despise his richest grace now, how glad
would they be of one favourable look from Christ! It is not simplicity
that is their ruin, but obstinacy and impenitency in sin, for which they
shall have no excuse or cloak : John xv. 22, ' If I had not come and
spoken unto them, they had not had sin ; but now they have no cloak
for their sin.'
III. Why this should deter God's people from being partakers with
them. Here I shall inquire (1.) What it is to be partakers with
them ; (2.) Why God's wrath should deter us from this ?
1. What it is to be partakers with them.
[1.] There is a principal sense, and chiefly intended here, that we
should not follow their example. We are not so ready to anything as
to follow ill examples. Man is a ductile creature ; they had need be
well resolved for God and holiness who are not carried down the
common stream. The example of the multitude hath a great force to
pervert mankind : Isa. vi. 5, ' I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips,' Eph. ii. 2, 3, ' The spirit that
ruleth in the children of disobedience ; among whom also we all had
our conversation in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh, and of the mind ;' 1 Peter iv. 2, ' That he no longer
should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to
the will of God.' It doth at least take off the odiousness of sin, and
reconcile the hearts of men to it. It is hard to be singular, and not to
follow a multitude, though in an evil way ; for by common practice
things are authorised : Gal. ii. 13, ' Peter dissembled, and the other
Jews dissembled also with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was
carried away with their dissimulation.' Now lest this should prevail
with us, the apostle would have us consider the danger ; we involve our
selves in the same punishment if we take not heed of the sin : ' Because
for these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of dis
obedience ; be not ye therefore partakers with them.' God punisheth
the disobedience of his people very sharply.
[2.] There is a limited sense of the phrase : 1 Tim. v. 22, ' Neither
be partakers of other men's sins.' There it signifieth not committing
the same sins, but being accessory to the sins of others. Some are
ringleaders and chief actors in a sinful course ; others are assessors
and abettors. Now how many ways may we partake of the sins of
others ?
(1.) By counselling ; as Jonadab gave Amnon pernicious counsel
how to fulfil his carnal and incestuous desires, 2 Sam. xiii. 5.
(2.) By alluring and enticing ; as. Prov. i. 10, ' My son, if sinners
entice thee, consent thou not.' Hear God persuading rather than a
carnal companion enticing.
240 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. VII.
(3.) By consenting ; as Aliah did to Jezebel's plot to destroy Naboth,
1 Kings, xxi. 19. His part was less in the sin than hers, therefore his
punishment was less than hers ; the dogs licked his blood, but they
devoured her body.
? (4.) By applauding or flattery, and lessening the sin : Horn. i. 32,
"* They not only do those things, but have pleasure in those that do
them.' So some are glad when they can draw others to drunkenness, or
inflame others with lust.
(5.) Conniving, contrary to the duty of our place : 1 Sam. iii. 13, ' I
will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because
his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.' Their sin
was a sin of commission, but his a sin of omission, and so he came into
a fellowship of the guilt. Now as we should not imitate the sin, and
so make it ours, so we should not be any way accessory to these sins,
and so be partakers in the guilt, as when we have power to hinder the
in and do it not.
2. Why the wrath of God should deter us from this.
[1.] Because of the impartiality of God's judgment ; he will not only
punish heathen sinners without the pale, but Christian sinners who
profess and own the true religion ; for there is no acceptance of persons
with God : 1 Peter i. 17, 'And if ye call on the Father, who without
respect of persons judgeth according to every man's works.' There by
* person ' is meant either Jew or Greek, Christian or pagan ; if there
be any difference, it is worse with them, and wrath will come upon
them first, because they know more of God's mind, and have greater
obligations and ad vantages of doing his will : Kom. ii. 9-11, ' Tribula
tion and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew
first, and also of the gentile ; but glory, honour, and peace to every
man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the gentile : for
there is no respect of persons with God.'
[2.] Because of the greatness of his mercy. That God will instruct
us at their cost, and sealeth our instruction on their backs, scourgeth
them so sorely in our sight, is for a warning to us. And in this sense
is that fulfilled, ' Prov. xxi. 18, The wicked shall be a ransom for the
righteous, and the transgressors for the upright ; ' that is, God will
make them spectacles of his judgment, that he may make us objects
of his mercy. Now it is stupidness not to observe the instances of God's
wrath on others, that we may not be made instances ourselves. David
trembled when he saw Uzzah smitten, 2 Sam. vi. 9 ; so should we when
Ood avengeth the quarrel of any commandment, as he frequently doth
in his providence : Eom. i. 18, Tor the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ; ' and Heb.
ii. 2, ' For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every trans
gression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward;'
surely then it concerneth us to lay it to heart.
Use 1. To show us that we are not to be idle spectators of God's
judgments on others, but judicious observers and improvers of them.
Observe here (1.) The use of observing God's providences on others ;
(2.) The manner of it.
. First, The use and benefit of observing God's providences is great in
these particulars
YER. 7.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 241
1. To cure atheism : Ps. Iviii. 11, 'So that a man shall say, Verily
there is a reward for the righteous ; verily he is a God that judgeth
in the earth.' They that know what to think of God's providence
before shall find that God doth govern the affairs of the world as a
righteous judge. Were men greater students in providence, and did
they observe what judgments he bringeth to light every day, they
would soon see that God is not indifferent to good and evil, that he
taketh care of things below ; that the world is not governed by blind
chance, but with great wisdom, and justice, and equity. It is not only
the cavil of the wicked : Mai. ii. 17, ' Ye have wearied the Lord with
your words ; yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him ? when ye say,
Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he
delighteth in them ; or, Where is the God of judgment ? ' As if God
did approve of wicked men, and were not a just and impartial judge,
or there were no providence at all. But it is the temptation of the
godly : Ps. Ixxiii. 11-13, ' And they say, How doth God know ?
and is there knowledge in the Most High ? Behold, these are the
ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. Verily, I
have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.'
The poet Claudian
He much doubted-
But at length
' Res hominum tanta caligine volvi
Aspiceret, laetosque diu florere nocentes,
Vexarique pios.'
' Curarunt super! terras ? an nullus inesset
Rector ? et incerto fluerent mortalia casu ? '
' Abstulit hunc tandem Ruffini pcena tumultum,
Absolvitque Decs.'
He would no more call in question God's providence and the just
government of the world.
2. To make us more cautious of sin, that we meddle not with it.
God's judgments feed our holy fear and awe of God, and so stir up
watchfulness and care for our own safety, that we may not fall into
like offences, or do anything that is displeasing unto God. We have
to do with a just and holy God, who we see is tender of his laws, a
God that will not be dallied with. When he beginneth to execute his
judgments against the children of disobedience, we should fear for our
selves. When Uzzah was stricken, ' How shall I bring the ark of God
home to me?' saith David, 1 Chron. xiii. 12. Will not God be so
severe to me if I behave myself irreverently ? Certainly it is stupid
incogitancy when God puts such examples before our eyes and we are
not affected with them. The Gibeonites were more wise and cautious,
Josh. ix. 3 ; when they saw the cities of Ai and Jericho destroyed,
and their inhabitants cut off by the sword, they did not expect the
coming of Joshua, but sent messengers to him, and by a wile struck
up a covenant before he came any farther. Or as that captain, when
two before him with their fifties were destroyed by fire, he fell upon
his knees before the prophet : 2 Kings i. 13, 14, ' And besought him,
and said unto him, man of God ! I pray thee let my life, and the
VOL. xix. Q
242 SERMONS UPON EPHESTANS V. [SER. VII
life of these fifty, be precious in tliy sight. Behold, there came fire
down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties,
with their fifties ; therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.'
But our stupidness and blindness is such that we are not moved with
these judgments so as to be more cautious : Prov. xxii. 3, 'A prudent
man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself ; but the simple pass on, and
are punished.'
3. To humble us, and make us more earnest in deprecating the
wrath of God, and suing out our pardon in Christ. We see sin goeth
not unpunished. Alas ! if God should enter into judgment with us r
who could stand? Ps. cxliii. 2. When we see his judgments executed
upon others, every humble heart will sue out his pardon. What
miserable wretched creatures should we be if God should stir up all
his wrath against us !
4. To make us thankful for our mercies and deliverances by Christ,
that, when others are spectacles of his wrath, we should be monuments
of his mercy and grace. Were it not for the Lord's pardoning and
healing grace, we had been in as bad a condition as the worst : Rom.
xi. 22, ' Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God ; on them
which fell, severity ; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in hi&
goodness ; otherwise also thou shalt be cut off.' When the Israelites
saw the Egyptians drowned in the waters, they saw the more reason to
bless God for their own escape ; and Moses pens a song of thanksgiving,
Exod. xv. Our deserts are in part represented to us in the bitter
experience of others. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not con
demned with the world, and left to perish in our sins ; but that we see
by their sufferings what an evil and bitter thing sin is.
Secondly, The manner of making these observations. This is need
ful to be stated, because men are apt to misapply providence, and to sit
as a coroner's inquest on the souls of their neighbours, and so rather
observe things to censure others than for their own caution. These
pervert the providences of God, and speak to the grief of others whom
God hath wounded. Shimei was one of this sort of men : 2 Sam. xvi.
7, 8, ' Come out, thou bloody man, thou man of Belial : the Lord
hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose
stead thou hast reigned, and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into
the hand of thy son Absalom ; and behold, thou art taken in thy
mischief, because thou art a bloody man.' As if God had been call
ing him to an account for the injuries done to Saul's house, and his
rebellion against his father-in-law was punished by the rebellion and
usurpation of his own son. Such bold glosses and comments do-
men put upon providence, and make it speak their own language, and
so they pry into God's secrets without God's warrant and direction.
Rules concerning the observation of God's providences towards others.
1. Certain it is that judgments on others must be observed. Provi
dence is a comment on the word, and therefore it is stupidness not to
take notice of it. They that will not observe God's hand shall feel it.
If we will not take the warning at a distance, and by others' smart and
rebuke, there is no way left but we ourselves must be taught by ex
perience. He that will plunge himself into a bog or quagmire, where
others have miscarried before him, is doubly guilty of folly, because he
VER. 7.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 243
neither feareth the threatening, nor will take warning by their example
and punishment. Observe we must : Amos vi. 2, ' Pass ye unto Calneh,
and see ; from thence go ye to Hamath the great ; then go down to
Gath of the Philistines : be they better than these kingdoms ? or their
border greater than your border ? '
2. This observation must be to a good end ; not to censure others,
that is malice ; or justify ourselves above them, that is pride and self-
conceit, condemned by our Lord Christ : Luke xiii. 25, ' And Jesus
answered and said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I
tell you, Nay ; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or
those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them:
think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ?
I tell you, Nay ; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish/
3. In making the observation, we must have a care that we do not
make providence speak the language of our fancies.
[1.] There must be a due reasoning from the provocation to the
judgment, sed non e contra ; not judge of the wickedness of the per
son by the judgments on the person ; as the barbarians at Melita
showed little reason and less charity in misconstruing the passage of
the viper that fastened on Paul's hand, that therefore 'he was a
murderer/ Acts xxviii. 4. The dispensations of God's providence are
commonly alike to good and bad, Eccles. ix. 1. By a sudden stroke
God may take off the godly as well as the wicked. Josiah died in the
same way that Ahab did, by an arrow in the battle, after being dis
guised, 2 Chron. xxxv. 23 ; Jonathan died in the field by the hand of
the uncircumcised, as well as Saul, 1 Sam. xxxi. 1, 2. Did Simon
Magus break his neck ? so did good old Eli, 1 Sam. iv. 18. We can
not conclude some great sin from the judgment. No; our reasoning
must be the contrary : Prov. xxi. 12, ' The righteous man wisely con-
sidereth the house of the wicked, but God overthroweth the wicked
for their wickedness.'
[2.] Sometimes the sin is clearly written on the judgment, and the
name of the sin is engraven on the rod wherewith we are scourged :
Judges i. 7, ' As I have done, so God hath requited me/ There are
some remarkable circumstances wherein sin and judgment meet :
Obad. 15, ' As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee.' The judg
ments have a signature and impress on them. The Israelites' children
were drowned in the waters ; so were Pharaoh, and all his nobility,
and men of war.
[3.] 'When the judgment treadetli on the heels of the sin, as Zimri
and Oosbi perished in the very act of their sin ; and Herod was
immediately smitten with lice when he usurped divine honour, Acts
xii. 22, 23.
[4.] When by the very means by which they hope to secure them
selves, and so, whilst they think to avoid their danger, they hasten and
increase it. The builders of Babel, being afraid of scattering, would
build a stupendous tower for a place of retreat, Gen. xi. 4. God con
founded their language, and by that means they were scattered. Jero
boam, to secure the kingdom to his house, sets up calves at Dan and
Bethel, 1 Kings xii. 26-28. This became a snare to his house to cut
244 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SttR. VIII.
it off, 1 Kings xiii. 34. The Philistines threatened Samson's wife to
burn her and her father's house with fire unless she would betray her
husband's secrets, Judges xiv. 15. She doth so, and Samson taking
his revenge ; they fulfilled what they threatened, Judges xv. 6. The
Jews being afraid lest the Konians would take jealousy of the people's
following of Christ, consult to kill him, John xi. 48 ; and for that
reason wrath came on them to the uttermost. Zedekiah disobeyed
God for fear of mockage, Jer. xxxviii. 19-22 ; and the Chaldeans,
when they had taken the city, put out his eyes, Jer. xxxix. 7. Thus
they readily fall into those evils they would most gladly escape. Now
it is much for the instruction of the world that these things should be
noted.
[5.] When they fall by those means by which they seek to entrap
others : Ps. ix. 15, 16, ' The heathens are sunk down in the pit which
they made, in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The
Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth ; the wicked is
snared in the work of his own hand. Higgaion, Selah.'
[6.] When the word, Kara ptfrov, in the express letter, is made good
on wicked men : Hosea vii. 12, ' I will chastise them, as their congrega
tion hath heard.' When the word doth fully take effect as it is laid
down, it is fully accomplished ; and the danger they would not believe
they are made to feel. Thus ' every morning he bringeth his judg
ments to light,' Zeph. iii. 5.
SERMON VIII.
For ye were sometimes darkness, l>ut now ye are light in the Lord :
ivalk as children of light. EPH. v. 8.
THE apostle having dissuaded them from foul practices, which would
be a blemish not only to Christians, but heathens, he now exhorteth
them to walk suitably to their profession and that blessed estate into
which they were translated. Change of state calleth for a different
course of life. You were darkness, and if you had so continued, we
could look for nothing else from you than the works of darkness. But
when you become light in the Lord, you must ' walk as children of the
light/ as those that know their way, and see their danger, if they go
amiss : ' For ye were sometimes darkness/ &c.
In the words we have (1.) An antecedent ; (2.) A consequent, or
an argument and an inference.
First, The antecedent, or argument, is taken from their present
compared with their past estate, what they are with what they were.
Formerly they were heathens, and did as other heathens do, but they
were now become Christians ; and if Christians, they should live chris-
tianly. Both estates are spoken of in the abstract, * darkness ' and
' light ; ' scelus pro scelerati. If we call a wicked man wickedness it
self, we say more than if we only said that he were a naughty or wicked
VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 245
person. To express the extreme misery of the carnal state, ' Ye were
darkness ; ' and the exceeding happiness of the renewed estate, ' Ye are
light/
1. The apostle representeth their past estate, ' Ye were sometimes
darkness.' But doth he do well to upbraid them with their former
condition ? I answer He doth not upbraid, but exhort. There is a
difference between envious exprobration and a Christian exhortation.
Upbraiding is a remembering the sins of others committed before con
version, with a purpose to reproach and shame them ; a practice usual
among base spirits, whose eye is evil, because God's hand is good.
Christ representeth it in the practice of the elder brother : Luke xv.
30, ' This thy son hath devoured thy living with harlots.' This is
sometimes done by the profane, who would fain represent others as
bad as themselves, that their own practices may be less odious, because
more common ; or else in carnal professors, who would shine alone,
and therefore envy the reputation of religion to others, yea, begrudge
the divine grace vouchsafed to them. But a Christian exhortation is
a thing quite different ; it is a putting others in mind of their former
condition, to stir them up to more zeal and thankfulness. To re
member it by way of exprobration is unlawful ; it is to rake in the filth
which God hath covered : Ps. xxxii. 1, ' Blessed is he whose trans
gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered ; ' a revoking as much as in
us lieth God's grant of grace to them. Ananias objecteth against Paul
his former practices, not knowing his change, Acts ix. 13-15. Then
Ananias answered, ' Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much
evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. But the Lord said unto
him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.' Satan is called
a slanderer, though most of his allegations against the saints are true,
because he accuseth them of what God hath pardoned. But enough
of this.
2. Their present estate, ' Ye are light in the Lord.' Where
[1.] The grace received, ' Ye are light.'
[2.] The author of it, ' In the Lord.'
[l.J The grace received, ' Ye are light ; ' that is, filled with the
light of wisdom and holiness. No question the expression heightens
the sense ; to be enlightened is a great thing in itself, but he speaketh of
some eminent and glorious privilege bestowed upon us : ' Ye are light.'
But can it be used of any mere man liable to such imperfections ?
(1.) It noteth not their perfection so much as the perfection of the
dispensation they are under. Not their perfection, as if there were no
darkness in them at all, but the clearness of the gospel which then
shined brightly to them. There is a difference between the gospel and
believers ; the gospel is a perfect light, but we do but imperfectly
receive it. Compare two places : 1 John ii. 8, ' The darkness is past,
and the true light now shineth.' This I understand of the gospel,
which was then set afoot, as the sun risen and shining in our horizon.
The other place is Eom. xiii. 12, ' The night is far spent, and the day
is at hand.' Not wholly gone, but pretty well over ; day not altogether
come, but it is at hand. This I understand of a Christian in his mixed
and imperfect state.
(2.) It noteth some good measure and degree of participation, but
246 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VIII.
not complete fruition. Participation it noteth, for otherwise it could
not be said that we are not only enlightened, but light itself ; not com
plete fruition, for those that are said to be ' light in the Lord' are pre
sently called ' children of the light ; ' which doth somewhat abate of
the expression.
(3.) It noteth that we have received grace, not only for ourselves,
but for the good of others. He that is enlightened receiveth a benefit
for himself ; but he that is light is to shine forth to direct others :
Phil. ii. 15, 'Shining as lights in the world ;' and Mat. v. 16, ' Let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven/
[2.] The author of this grace, ' In the Lord ; ' that is, Christ ; for
there is, but 'one Lord,' as well as 'one God and Father of all,' Eph.
iv. 5, 6 ; and whatever good we have, we have it from Christ and in
Christ.
The light is said to be in him, and to come from him.
(1.) In opposition to Satan, who is the prince of darkness. The
devils are called ' The rulers of the darkness of this world,' Eph. vi.
12 ; and their kingdom is a kingdom of darkness ; but Christ is a
fountain of light, and his kingdom the kingdom of light.
(2.) In subordination to God, God is light, and Christ is light.
Originally God is light, and in him is no darkness at all ; but deriva
tively Christ as mediator is light: John viii. 12, 'I arn the light of
the world ; he that followed! rne shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life.' The Father is a light to whom no man can
approach, and before whom the angels cover their faces ; but this light
is brought near to us by Christ : John iii. 19, ' Light is come into the
world.' It is more comfortable to us, as it shineth forth in the person
of the mediator, and so the better conveyed to us, he being one in our
nature.
But how is this communicated from the Lord ?
Ans. He enlighteneth by his word and Spirit. His word : 2 Cor.
iv. 4, ' Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them.' By his Spirit : Eph. i. 17, 'That the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you
the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.' The
Spirit of wisdom and revelation doth open the eyes of their minds,
that so they may be light in the Lord.
Secondly, The consequent or inference. From their change of state
he inferreth a change of life. Therefore, before I come more particu
larly to discuss the force of this argument, let us a little see the
necessity or need of this exhortation. For some might argue, If they
be ' light in the Lord,' then what need is there to exhort them ' to
walk as children of the light ? ' Is it not all one as to say, If thou beest
a sun, shine as a sun ; if thou beest fire, burn as fire ? So some
argued in Atigustin's time, as if believers had no need of exhortation,
because of the potency and inclination of grace. I answer
1. There is a difference between natural agents and moral. Natural
agents, positis omnibus ad agendum requisites, inanimate and unreason
able creatures, follow the inclination of their natures or the tendency
of their principles of necessity ; but such as are endued with understand-
VER 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 247
ing work with a kind of liberty and choice. Fire burneth where it
meeteth with matter combustible, but a reasonable creature needeth to
be exhorted to perform acts agreeable to his principle ; for in reasonable
creatures, though the inclination be necessary, the acts are voluntary;
therefore though they have an inclination, they need to be quickened by
counsel and exhortation. Though it be in vain for us to bid the sun
shine, whether we will or no it will do so, if there be no impediment ;
yet it is not in vain to bid a reasonable creature to walk suitably to his
principles.
2. Exhortation is God's appointed means, necessary for us while we
are in our imperfect state. Sluggish nature is backward to good, and
we have much opposite corruption in us. Earth would be heaven,
grace would be glory, our way would be our country, if we could not
tit all obey the flesh. In heaven the being of sin is abolished ; therefore
there will be no room for exhortation, there is no preaching there, no
calling upon men to serve God, no dissuasions from sin, no corruption
remaining in the saints, no liberty left unto them of hearkening to
temptations ; that liberty which they have as reasonable creatures is
swallowed up by the amplitude of their love to God ; as the good
angels have a liberty which doth not consist in an indifferency to good
and evil, but in largeness of love to God, and a happy necessity of
doing that which is pleasing to him, and an impossibility of doing
-otherwise.
Doct That those who are called out of darkness to light have a great
obligation upon them to walk as children of light.
1. I shall open the two opposite states, 'darkness' and 'light.'
2. Show that there is a mighty change wrought in them that are
called out of the one into the other.
3. That it is good often to compare these two estates, and consider
what we are by nature, and what we are by grace.
4. If this change be wrought in us, it must be manifested by a suit
able conversation.
I. Let rue speak of the two opposite states, ' darkness ' and ' light,'
nnd there show you that the carnal estate is an estate of darkness, and
the renewed state is a state of light.
1. The carnal estate is an estate of darkness. So the apostle telleth
the Ephesians, Ye were not only darksome, but ervoro?, darkness itself,
for the greater vehemency of the expression.
[1.] The darkness of the understanding is ignorance ; they are in
capable of discerning between good arid evil, know nothing of the
nature and will of the true God. These Ephesians were given to
curious arts, Acts xix. ; they were the flower of all Asia for curious
knowledge. But a people that lie in their sins, without the saving
knowledge of the gospel, are in great darkness. A drachm of sanctified
knowledge is better than all the curious arts in the world, and those
most lawful.
But you will say, Thus he spoke of them as heathens ; are all carnal
men to be accounted darkness ? I answer Yes; they are blind and
dark as to those things that relate to God and heaven. To God : Eph.
iv. 18, ' Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
248 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VIIL-
blindness of their heart/ Whatever understanding and quickness of
judgment they have in other things, yet they are gross, brutish, and
wild in such things as appertain to God and their communion with
God. And as to heaven : 2 Peter i. 9, ' He that lacketh these things
is blind, and cannot see afar off.' ' These things,' that is, the graces of
the Spirit. There is a mist upon eternity, and a carnal eye cannot
look through it. His eyes are not anointed with spiritual eye-salve ;
he cannot see these things so as to take off his heart from his vain
pleasures.
But you will say, Many carnal men that live in the bosom of the
church are orthodox, have good opinions in religion, and great know
ledge of the mysteries of salvation. I answer But this knowledge is
neither accompanied with application nor affection to what they know.
First, Not with application. It is not a directive light, to show them
how to come out of their misery, or to guide their choice : Rom. i. 21,
' They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened.' It doth not teach them how to love, and please, or trust in.
God, as the heathens with their TO yvua-rov Qeov. So it is with carnal
Christians : 1 Cor. viii. 2, 3, ' And if any man think that he knowetk
anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any
man love God, the same is known of him/ Secondly, Nor persuasive,
and with affection, so as to change their hearts, so that they may seek
after God in Christ. It neither restraineth evil, nor constraineth to
that which is good. Light that is unable to discharge its office, to
bridle corruptions, is but as darkness : Eom. i. 18, ' They withhold the
truth in unrighteousness ; ' like a prisoner in fetters. It may talk its
fill, but can do nothing. It urgeth not to good ; they are secure and
careless ; they are Christ's, but prepare not to do their master's will :
Luke xii. 47. It doth not overcome their prejudice against the holy
and heavenly life : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him;
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned/
The name is prized, but the thing hated, Christ's offices and government.
Or else if there be any motion towards Christ, it is as their knowledge
is. If it be a sensible, awakening, practical knowledge that we have,
accordingly will our esteem of Christ be ; but if it be a superficial
speculative knowledge, either of sin or misery, or of Christ our remedy,,
our faith is opinionative and superficial ; we shall not value him as a
saviour indeed ; and therefore it is not talking by rote after others which
will excuse. There is a vain mind in every unconverted man, and a
dark understanding which cannot do its office. Now this is a miser
able estate, either to be altogether ignorant, or to have but a speculative
traditional knowledge of the things of God ; either to have no knowledge,
or not that which is directive and persuasive. This breedeth doubt
fulness : John xii. 35, ' He that walketh in darkness knoweth not
whither he goeth ; ' 1 John ii. 11, ' He that hateth his brother is in
darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth,
because that darkness hath blinded his eyes/ He wandereth in a maze
of uncertainties, not knowing whether he goeth right or wrong, whether
he be in the way that leadeth to heaven or hell ; he liveth by guess,,
and knoweth not what to fear or hope for.
VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 249
[2.] There is downright and apparent wandering from God. The
Greek scholiast saith Paul calleth darkness rov ev irkavrj ftiov, a life
spent in error ; for by their ignorance men run into all profaneness,.
and become very slaves of sin. To walk in darkness is often put in
scripture for living in a course of sin : Prov. iv. 19, ' The way of the
wicked is as darkness.' He compares the course of the godly to a
growing light, ' that shines more and more unto the perfect day/ veiv
18 ; and the course of the wicked to a growing darkness, till it comes-
to the dead of the night.
[3.] Eternal misery is the issue and close of it, called ' outer dark
ness,' Mat. xxv. 30 ; and 2 Peter ii. 17, ' To whom the mist of dark
ness is reserved for ever ; ' because the sunshine of God's presence
never cometh there ; they are for ever separated from the face of God,,
and presence and communion with him. Well, then, you see one
darkness maketh way for another the darkness of ignorance for the
darkness of sin, and both for everlasting darkness.
2. The renewed estate is an estate of light. Light is a quality pure
and unmixed, and implieth both knowledge, holiness, and happi
ness. Knowledge, as it discovereth all things ; holiness, as it is pure,,
and can shine on the filthiest dunghill without any stain ; felicity, as-
it is the smile of heaven upon the earth. Light is pleasant. Surely
this ought to be the more prized by us, because originally man's life is
light : John i. 4, ' And the life was the light of men.' Man had a
reasonable soul, but it is in a great measure eclipsed by sin. Now, to
restore us, Christ's doctrine, which bringeth life, is also light, and the
new man begins in light : Col. iii. 10, ' And have put on the new
man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that
created him.' When once we receive the saving knowledge of saving-
truth, then all other things follow which belong to the spiritual life ;.
such truth for the object, such manner of apprehension for the kind
as may be saving. This introduceth and leadeth on other things.
Because I shall have occasion to speak of it afterwards, I shall say the
less now ; only show you how great a blessing divine illumination is.
Common knowledge of divine things is an excellent gift, though it be
cold and weak, and doth not warm the heart with love to the thing
known; but the grace of illumination is much more excellent to
further the glory of God. The bare gift is used to the interest of the
flesh, for fame and esteem in the world: 1 Cor. viii. 1, 'We know that
we all have knowledge : knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth/
The gift, if it be single and alone, puffeth us up with a lofty conceit
and vain ostentation of ourselves and a disdain of others ; but the grace
keepeth us humble, for the more we know affectively, the more we see
our defects, not in knowledge only, but in holiness. And the grace is-
wrought in us by the special and sanctifying influence of the Holy
Ghost, and is not only knowledge, but wisdom, and maketh us serious,,
operative, and full of good fruits : James iii. 17, ' But the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be
entreated ; full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and with
out hypocrisy ; ' begetting earnest desires and endeavours after the
things known : John iv. 10, ' If thou knewest the gift of God, and who
it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of
250 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. VIII.
him.' Now when our eyes are thus opened, and turned from darkness
to light, we begin to he serious Christians : Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open
their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an
inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me;'
and carry ourselves as those that are affected witli their misery and
remedy. They talked before of sin as a thing of course, and were
wont to marvel why men kept such a deal of do about it ; but ihe case
is altered. God hath opened their eyes, and therefore they complain of
sin as the greatest burden, and would fain be rid of it at any rate.
They also seek after Clirist as the only remedy; nothing will satisfy
them but Christ : ' All things are dung and dross in comparison of the
excellency of the knowledge of him/ Phil. iii. 8. And they are resolved
to venture all with him and for him : Mat. xiii. 45, 46, ' The kingdom of
heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls ; and when he
hath found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and
bought it.' Certainly then a great privilege it is when God doth
thus cure the blindness of our minds, and open and incline our hearts
to spiritual and heavenly things ; whether you consider
[I.] The objects known are the highest and most important matters
in the world. The knowledge of the profonndest science is question
less more than skill in some low and petty employments. As Themis-
tocles said, To know how to govern a city is more than how to play
upon a lute. But to have the saving knowledge of God and the life
to come is more than all the admired wisdom of the flesh, or all the
common learning of the world. Therefore how much are we bound
to praise God if we may be light in the Lord ! It is more than to
know how to govern kingdoms and commonwealths, and to do the
greatest business upon earth. To know God, the first cause of all
things, Jesus Christ, who is the restorer of all things, and the Holy
Spirit, who cherisheth and preserveth all things, to know his heavenly
operations, the nature and action of his several graces, this is the happi
ness and glory of a man ; all other knowledge is a poor low thing to
this. Alas ! what are all the mysteries of nature to the mysteries of
godliness. To know our disease and remedy, danger and cure, our
work and end, what is to be believed and practised, what we shall en
joy, and what we must do to obtain it, these are the things do most
concern us ; all other knowledge is but curious, and hath more of
pleasure than profit. To know our own affairs, and our greatest and
most necessary affairs, these are the things we should busy ourselves
about; other knowledge may be well spared. To know our misery,
that we may prevent it ; our remedy, that we may look after it in time ;
our work, that we may perform it ; our end, that we may intend it,
and be encouraged by it, and what course we must take that we may
be everlastingly happy ; this is the greatest favour can be bestowed
upon us : we should beg it of God.
[2.] The manner of knowing. To see these things with clearness,
certainty, efficac} r , and power. Now this is diversely expressed in scrip
ture ; sometimes to know them ' as we ought to know them/ 1 Cor. viii.
2 ; ' To know the grace of God in truth/ Col. i. 6 ; to get a ' spiritual
discerning/ 1 Cor. ii. 14 ; to get not a sight only, but a taste, 1 Peter
VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 251
ii. 3. It is a sweeter knowledge than all learned men have who are
ungodly. Others may have more of the words and notions, but less of
the thing itself; they have the sign, but true Christians the thing
signified ; they break the shell, but others eat the kernel ; they dress
the meat, but others feed upon it and digest it ; they dig in the mines
of knowledge as negroes, but others have the gold. True Christians take
up religion out of inspiration, but others out of opinion and tradition ;
they have a divine faith, whilst others have but human credulity; they
may talk of what they hear and read from others, but these receive it
* not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance,' 1 Thes. i. 5. They are not only affected with the truths
they know, but transformed by them, and changed into the divine
nature. Now what a mercy is this, that when, they might have gone
to hell as witless fools, as others do, God hath given them counsel in
their reins !
II. That there is a mighty change wrought in them who are called
out of one estate into the other. A great difference there is certainly
bet ween the carnal and regenerate estate ; they differ as* much as dark
ness and light, as death and life, as the new man and the old : ' Ye
were sometimes darkness, but are now light in the Lord.' There is a
difference between them and themselves, and between them and others;
both are of respect in this place. Not, They are darkness and ye are
light, but, ' Ye were sometimes darkness, but ye are now light in the
Lord;' because the apostle speaketh of the same men ; and to this
end it is spoken, that they may have no fellowship with evil ones, or be
partakers with them in works of darkness. Now both these are proved
by the same reasons.
1. Because they have a different principle ; the internal principle is
not alike in both. Unumquodque operatur secundum suamformam
All things work according to their nature ; as fire ascendeth and water
descendeth ; fishes go to the water, and beasts keep on dry land ; it
is according to their nature, and that principle of life which they
have. The saints have a divine nature : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby ye are
made partakers of the divine nature/ Arid the carnal are scarce men,
because they are governed by their sensitive appetite, and so come nearer
to the nature of beasts ; and so the one are led by the flesh, the other
by the Spirit, as is often observed in scripture. But you will say, There
is an old nature in God's children, flesh as well as spirit. I answer
[1.] By concession there is indeed a diversity or contrariety of prin
ciples : Gal. v. 17, ' For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the
spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary one to the other.' These
two powers and principles are of contrary natures and tempers. By
the one they delight in the law of God : Rom. vii. 22, ' I delight in the
law of God after the inward man ; ' and avoid sin : ] John iii. 9, ' Who
soever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in
him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.' Yet there is
corruption, which often opposeth and rebelleth against the new nature,
so that its operations are much hindered and obscured.
[2.] Though there be an opposite principle, and though it impede,
and hinder, and obscure the operations of the new nature, and the
inclination of it be weakened by the back bias of corruption, yet there
252 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SEIl. VIIL
is a prevalency of the better principle, which doth most usually discover
itself in our conversations. Principiata respondent suis principiis
The constant effects declare the prevailing principle. As the children
of Israel brought under the Canaanites in the land of promise, and had
the chief sway of affairs there, so doth grace abate the power of corrup
tion, and restrain its exorbitancies, that it doth not ordinarily break
out. The man is not what he was before : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.' They
have crucified, and do crucify it still in their desire and endeavours,,
and gain more success against it. The work is not quite done, but it
is begun, and carried on with an intent to be finished. Already there
is enough done to bridle the corrupt nature, and to constitute a plain
difference between them and others, who are wholly guided by the flesh.
They are differenced from others by change of heart, from themselves
by a change of life.
2. As the internal principle of our operation is unlike, so the exter
nal rule of our conversations are quite different, viz., the will of God
revealed in the word, which they study to know and obey : Eph. v. 10,
' Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord ; ' ver. 17, ' Be not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is ; ' Kom. xii. 2, ' That
ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God.'
III. That it is good often to compare those two estates, and to con
sider what we are by nature and what we are by grace.
First, That we ought frequently to reflect on our former woful
estate. The apostle often directeth Christians to look back : Eph. iL
2, 3, ' Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience : among whom also we all
had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling;
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others ; ' Col. i. 21, ' And you that were sometimes
alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled.' God appointed ordinances to this end among the Jews.
The passover to remember their bondage in Egypt ; and the parents
were obliged to interpret it to their children : Exod. xii. 26, 27, ' And
it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What
mean you by this service ? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the
Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel
in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.' So
the first-fruits : Deut. xxvi. 5, ' A Syrian ready to perish was my father,
and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and be
came there a nation great, mighty, and populous.'
Keasons there are for this
1. To magnify the riches of God's mercy in our deliverance from that
woful estate. We wonder at it more when we compare both together :
1 Peter ii. 9, ' But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light ; ' 1 Tim.
i. 13, ' Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious ;
but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.'
YER. 8.J SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 253
2. That we may admire his power in the change : 1 Cor. vi. 11, 'And
such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but
ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God.' That ever our sins should be washed and cleansed : Isa. i. 18,
' Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; and
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'
3. To keep us humble : 1 Cor. xv. 9, ' For I am the least of the
apostles, and am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God.' A man may be proud of spiritual enjoyments, so
far as he is unholy : 2 Cor. xii. 7, ' And lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given me a
thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be
exalted above measure.' Now, to take us down and to humble us, let
us remember the sin and misery we were once in when we knew it not.
God will do much to keep gracious souls humble as long as they live.
They were once as bad as the worst, and were children of wrath even
as others. Though God forgets their sins so as to forgive them, yet they
cannot forget them, but are humbled in the remembrance of them ; they
condemn themselves when God justifieth them : Exek. xx. 34, ' Then
shall ye remember your own ways, and all your doings wherein you have
been defiled ; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all
jour evils that you have committed.' They set those sins before their
faces, which God hath cast behind his back ; not to breed a distrust of
'God's mercy, but to humble their own souls. Though mercy hath
-washed, and justified, and sanctified you, yet you were as bad as others ;
no poverty, beggary, and reproach in the world will be so humbling to
them as this.
4. It maketh us more compassionate to others, we having once as
blind a mind and as hard a heart as they Titus iii. 2, 3, ' To speak
>evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men. For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
.hateful, and hating one another.' We had as bad natures as any, and
lay in the same puddle of corruption, were hewn out of the same rock,
and digged out of the same pit, and came into the world as naked and
destitute of grace as any others. Israel knew the heart of a stranger,
therefore they were to pity strangers : Deut. xxiv. 18, 1 9, ' Thou shalt
remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God
redeemed thee thence; therefore I command thee to do this thing.
When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a
sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it ; it shall be for
the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow ; that the Lord thy God
may bless thee in all the work of thy hands.'
5. It maketh us more watchful. A man that hath escaped a danger
ous disease or surfeit is very careful from his own experience that he
doth not lapse into it again. Alas ! too much corruption still remain-
eth with us ; we still have flesh that fighteth against the Spirit, Gal. v.
17. Old lusts soon awaken at the knock of a temptation. Paul groaneth
sorely that so much of this carnal nature was left ; to find such rem
nants of that odious sin, which cost us so dear, and had cost us dearer
if our Lord Jesus Christ had not paid our ransom. We were darkness;
254 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VIII.
but alas ! how dark are we still ! how far from heaven ! how little do we
know, and believe, and love ! We know but in part, and love God
but in part, and serve God with such constant weakness, and the old
Avorking warring principle doth often get the advantage of us, and pro
duce some actual sin of thought, word, and deed, that we have need to*
take heed to ourselves lest we be again brought under the captivity and
bondage of the law of sin. Shall we drink once more of the bitter waters ?
Josh. xxii. 17, ' Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we
are not cleansed unto this day, though there be a plague in the con
gregation of the Lord ? '
6. It doth quicken us to greater fruitfulness for time to coine. Was
I so zealous for sin, and shall I not do so much for God ? Horn. vi.
19, ' As ye have yielded your members servants unto uncleanness, and
to iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield your members servants to
righteousness unto holiness;' Acts xxvi. 11, 'Being exceeding mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities ; ' compared
with 2 Cor. v. 13, ' For whether we be beside ourselves, it is for God ;
or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.' Since we set out so late,
let us mend our pace : 1 Peter iv. 3, ' For the time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will of the gentiles, when we walked in
lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abomi
nable idolatries.'
7. It maketh our conversion more evident and sensible, and so
quickeneth us to thankfulness and praise. When we compare the two
extremes, darkness and light, nature and grace, it doth much hurt to
believers, in judging of their condition, to forget what they once were,
and not to consider what they now are. The comparing of these two,
what they were with what they now are, would make the change more
sensible and evident : 2 Cor. v. 17, ' Whosoever is in Christ is a new
creature ; old things are passed away, and all things are become new/
Old things are passed away, and are passing away still. Our gradual
progress in holiness is more insensible, and therefore we may overlook
the mercy ; but the first work is more sensible, we may find a great
change in ourselves. All that belong to God may say, as the blind
man, John ix. 25, ' One thing I know, that whereas I was born blind,
I now see.' By comparing the two extremes they find they are not the
same men they were before. Once they had no delight in communion
with God, now it is a trouble to keep out of God's company. Nothing
was so tedious and burdensome as the duties of religion, now their
hearts are more agreeable to them, and they are sweeter to them than
their appointed food. Before they were slight and sluggish, now they
are hard at work for God. Before, they abandoned themselves to all
manner of carnalities, now they are troubled about the first risings and
bubbling up of sin ; the conscience which was stupid is made tender ;
the stream of their thoughts, desires, and endeavours run in another
channel ; their hearts are altered, life altered, speech altered. And by
comparing these extremes it is the ready way to interpret our condi
tion. Men forget the estate they once were in, and the great change
which the Spirit of God hath wrought in them, and because such altera
tions are not wrought in them continually, live in doubt and fear.
Look, as the forgetting our poverty and affliction maketh us undervalue
VEK. 8.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 255
a more plentiful condition, and those comforts which we should have
counted a wonderful mercy before ; or when we are recovered from a
sickness, and live in health, we forget the tediousness of sickness, and
are not thankful for the health which we enjoy; so we undervalue, or
overlook, or question the present state of grace, because we forget the
unfruitful works of darkness, or the evil disposition and practices of
our unregeneracy, and have not such comfortable apprehensions of the
mercy which God hath bestowed in our change. Time was when you
had little savour of the things of the Spirit, little mind to Christ and
holiness, and were wholly given up to the pleasures of the flesh, and
profits of the world ; but your minds and ways are changed, and you are
not the persons that you were, and that will help you to interpret your
condition before God.
8. It increaseth your confidence and hopes of eternal life : he that
could take us with all our faults, and love us, and pardon us, and heal
our natures, and reconcile us to himself, will he not give us eternal
life after we begin to obey him, and love him, and serve him in our
measure ? Rom. v. 9, 10, ' Much more then, being now justified by his
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we
were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.' You can
not be worse than you were at first.
9. It putteth an argument in your hands against sin : Eom. vi.
20, 21, ' For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from right
eousness : what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed ? ' and ver. 22, ' But now being made free from sin, and
become servants to God, you have your fruits unto holiness.' Shall a
servant of God walk as he did when he was a servant of sin ? Right
eousness had no whit of your service, why should sin have any part of
your service now ? especially if you consider how little fruit, benefit,
or satisfaction your sins brought you in the time of enjoying them ;
but now having given over yourselves to the service of God, sanctifi-
cation must daily increase in you.
Secondly, We ought to remember what we were by nature, so as not
to deny what we are by grace : Rom. vi. 17, ' But God be thanked that
ye were the servants of sin ; but ye have obeyed from the heart the
form of doctrine which was delivered you.' Christ checketh Peter,
John xiii. 10, for not owning grace. Though his feet need to be
washed, God would not have us deny our renewed estate. Remember
your past estate for humiliation, not for your confusion. Remember
old sins and old mercies. So David : Ps. xxv. 6, 7, ' Remember,
Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses ; for they have ever
been of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgres
sions : according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake,
Lord.' Not to tear open the wounds of an healed conscience, not to
terrify conscience, but admire mercy, and to 'love much, because much
is forgiven,' Luke vii. 47.
IV. This change must be manifested by a suitable conversation :
' Walk as children of the light.' We have the same exhortation, Rom.
xiii. 12, 13, ' The night is far spent, the day is at hand ; let us there
fore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
256 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. VIII.
light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunk
enness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying ; '
1 Thes. v. 5-8, ' Ye are all the children of the light, and the children
of the day ; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let
us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober : for they that
sleep, sleep in the night ; and they that are drunken, are drunken in
the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.'
Children of the light may refer to the dispensation we are under, or the
grace we have received by it.
1. The dispensation we are under, as those that live in the clear
ness of gospel light are children of the day. Ye are not of the night ;
walk as children of light, that have the light of the gospel, or
becoming that most holy religion which Christ hath taught us. (1.)
In the light all blemishes are soon discovered, and so our sins are
without excuse ; whereas people that have not the gospel, or not so
fully preached, are more excusable. Men might plead this, that they
knew no better ; but now they ' have no cloak for their sin,' John xv. 22.
Men have some cloak to hide the odiousness of sin from themselves
and others ; their ignorance, their infirmity ; yea, the Lord himself
doth pity men, considering their education, prejudices, temptations;
but the gospel holdeth out such convincing light as taketh away all
excuse from wicked sinners. (2.) As they are without sin, so without
shame, when they sin in the open light : Zeph. iii. 5, ' Every morning,
doth he bring his judgment to light ; he faileth not, but the unjust
knoweth no shame.' While the light of nature is not violated, sin
i)reedeth a bashfulness and unconfidence ; but when men despise both
the light of nature and scripture, they grow impudent, and lose all
tenderness, and awakening of conscience, and outgrow the heart of a
man. (3.) Sins are more dangerous and deadly: John iii. 19, 'And
this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.' It is
an affront to the light that shineth to us, gives a double dye to our
sins, and so increases our punishment and condemnation.
2. The grace received by it. Now the children of light are those
-who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, have a new nature, and a sense
of the other world. Luke xvi. 8, the 'lord commended the unjust
steward, because he had done wisely ; for the children of this world
-are wiser in their generation than the children of light/ Surely they
should watch and be sober, and plainly distinguish themselves from
the carnal world.
[1.] To show their thankfulness for the grace received : Luke i. 74,
75, ' That he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the
hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and
righteousness before him all the days of our life.'
[2.] That they may not obstruct the new nature put into them, and
hinder its operations, and so grieve the Spirit of God, who would work
in them all righteousness, godliness, and holiness : ver. 9, ' For the
fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth.'
[3.] That they may obey the light, and comply with the sense of
their duty written on their hearts ; otherwise they offer violence, not
. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 257
only to their duty, but to their nature ; not only to their rule without,
but their conscience within, or the law written upon their hearts:
Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts.'
[4.] They have tasted of all waters, the bitterness of sin and the
sweetness of grace, the terrors of the Lord, and the sweetness of the
mercy of God and the grace of Christ ; and shall they give way to sin
and folly ?
[5.] They are posting to a better estate, and preparing for it : Col.
i. 12, 'Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light/ Therefore for them to walk in works of dark
ness is more blameworthy, as if the way to hell would bring them to
heaven.
Use. Eemember it often to your humiliation, lest God permit you
to remember it to your confusion. Those whose sins are pardoned
may to their sense have their guilt raked out of its grave. It is pos
sible the wounds of an healed conscience may bleed afresh, when we
walk not humbly and cautiously. Though God doth not recant his
sentence of pardon, yet the sin may occur to us, and ghosts haunt us
of those who were long since buried.
SERMON IX.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and
truth. EPH. v. 9.
THESE words do show both how and why we must walk as children of
the light ; and so are both an explication and confirmation of the former
exhortation. An explication, what it is to walk, or how we must walk,
' in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.' A confirmation, or new
reason, as the causal particle, 'for,' showeth. The apostle had argued
from their profession of being Christians. Now from the grace by which
they were made Christians ; tliey were regenerated by the Holy Ghost.
To be light in the Lord and to be renewed by the Spirit is all one thing ;
and if you be enlightened and regenerated, the fruit of this must be
' All goodness, and righteousness, and truth.'
In the words we have
1. The author, the Holy Spirit.
2. The fruits of his sanctifying operations enumerated, ' All good
ness, and righteousness, and truth.' This is the conversation that may
be called ' Walking as children of the light.'
The three words may be taken in a more general sense, or in a more
limited and restrained sense. In a general sense : Eom. xv. 14, ' And
I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full
of goodness.' So goodness is taken for all saving graces ; and righteous
ness for a preparedness to discharge our duty to God and man. As
Zacharias and Elizabeth were both righteous, ' Walking in all the corn-
VOL. xix. R
258 , SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [&ER. IX,
mandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless/ Luke i. 6. And
truth for sincerity, called elsewhere 'The girdle of truth,' Epb. vi. 14.
Or in a more limited sense, so goodness is that grace whereby we are
inclined to do good to others to the uttermost of our power : Gal. vi. 10,.
' Let us do good to all men, especially to them that are of the household
of faith.' This goodness is reckoned among the fruits of the Spirit :
Gal. v. 22, ' Gentleness, goodness, faith.' Righteousness implieth justice
in our dealing, which giveth every one his due: 1 Tim. vi. 11, 'Follow
after righteousness.' Truth signifieth fidelity in our speech and actions,
when we live free from lying and dissimulation. Now which sense shall
we prefer, the general or more limited ? It mattereth not much which
of them we prefer, for they are not contrary, but subordinate. But that
3 r ou may conceive aright of the words, let me give you these expository
observations
1. The apostle, for example's sake, mentioneth some parts of the holy
life, not to exclude, but imply the rest ; for there is a secret 'and such
like ' understood. When he saith, ' This is the fruit of the Spirit,' you
must not think it is all When we bring a sample of a commodity, we
bring a little to show the quality of the rest, not as if that were all we
had to sell ; so these graces are mentioned, but not to exclude the rest.
2. He instanceth in such graces as concern the second table, kind
ness, justice, and fidelity, as is usual in such cases. The world is most
capable of knowing and approving these things, but they suppose higher
graces ; for all our goodness, justice, and truth must come from love
and obedience to God, and faith in Christ, as their true and proper
principle, or else they are but moral virtues, not Christian graces : Job
a. 1, ' There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and
that man was perfect and upright, one that feared God, and eschewed
evil.' And Joseph of Arimathea was a good man and a just man, ' who
also himself waited for the kingdom of God/ Luke xxiii. 50. When
they are accompanied with these higher graces, then these things are
good. Sometimes the new creature is described by the state of the
heart, as it standeth affected to God and the world to come ; so other
graces, as fruits of the Spirit, are mentioned : 2 Tim. i. 7, ' For God
hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind/ Sometimes the Spirit is spoken of as it fitteth us and
frameth us for our duty to man, as here in the text. There is not a
more benign thing, that doth more fit us to live peaceably and usefully
in human society,than the gospel spirit ; and the world looketh to these
things, and chooseth these things.
3. These are spoken of as in combination. We must not so follow
after one as to neglect the other. Goodness must not make us neglect
justice, nor justice, goodness ; and in the acts of both we must be sin
cere and true. Some divide these things : Rom. v. 7, ' For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some
would even dare to die ; ' for one really performing what he pretends to
do. Our duty to our neighbour is either negative, not wronging them ; or
positive, promoting their good. Justice bindeth our hands, and keepeth
us from doing hurt to our neighbour, but goodness inclineth us to seek
their good by all ways possible. And truth commendeth both. Right
eousness keepeth us from the wrong that is done them by open violence,
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 259
and truth keepeth us from the wrong that may be done them by fraud
and deceit. Goodness inclineth to seek our neighbour's good and bene
fit, and truth bindeth us to seek it sincerely, not in word and tongue
only, but in deed and in truth : 1 John iii. 18, ' My little children, let
us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.'
4. I observe that there is a note of universality joined to the word
goodness, ' All goodness,' to show this is of chief regard, and that we
must not be good in one sort or kind only, but ' fruitful in every good
work,' Col. i. 10. A Christian should be made up of goodness ; his very
'constitution and trade must be goodness.
5. I observe that these are called fruit, not only by a Hebraism, who
are wont to express the works of a man by the term ' fruit ; ' for man
is, or should be a tree of righteousness ; but there is a distinction : Gal.
v. 19, 22, now the 'works of the flesh' are manifest, but ' the fruit of
the Spirit;' so also here compare the text with ver. 11, 'Unfruitful
works of darkness.' But why is it called 'fruit?' Partly to show
it is the native and genuine product of the Spirit in our hearts, as
fruit groweth on a tree ; and partly to show that sin is an unprofitable
drudgery, but holiness is fruit. There is toil, here benefit : Kom. vi.
21, 22, ' What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed ? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made
free from sin, and become the servants of God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life.' There is no fruit in sin ; the
work is drudgery, and the reward is death ; but holiness is fruit, for
it is the way to eternal life.
6. All these graces, and duties consequent, are fruits of the Spirit.
The Vulgar read lucis ; some Greek copies, rov <&>T09 ; most, rov
trvev //.arc?. The Holy Ghost produceth this fruit in us ; he worketh
and dwelleth in the hearts of all those who are light in the Lord.
7. He speaketh of habits, not of acts : ' Walking as children of the
light/ relateth more to the acts or exercise of the grace which we have
received ; but here the apostle speaketh of goodness rather than good
works, of justice rather than just works. The habits give facility and
easiness to all acts. When the soul is thus constituted, it is hard to
do otherwise. So in opposition to the ' Works of darkness ' there is
' Putting on the armour of light,' Eom. xiii. 12. The habit is opposed
to the act, because the work will follow, when once the heart is framed
and fitted for these things.
8. These are ascribed to the Spirit by the apostle for two reasons
[1.] Partly because of man's incapacity to produce these things of
himself. We are not only defective in the duties which concern our
commerce with God, but also in the lower hemisphere of duties, those
which concern our dealings with men. None is good of himself, but
only God : Mat. xix. 17, ' Why callest thou me good ? there is none good
but one, that is God ; ' that is, originally good. As all the stars derive
their light from the sun, so do we receive every good and perfect gift
from the Father of lights, James i. 17. God is originally good, but we
are good by participation. This was true of man in innocency ; but
there is another reason for man in his fallen estate, for there we were
altogether bent on evil : Ps. xiv. 3, ' There is none that doeth good, no
not one.' Surely in that estate, whatever good we do is from the Spirit
260 SEKMONS UrON EPHESIANS V. [SttR. XI.
of God : Acts xi. 24, ' Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy
Ghost, and of faith.' We are made so by the Holy Spirit, not born
so ; none of us love good, and hate evil, and sincerely set ourselves to
do that which is holy and righteous, till he hath framed us for this use.
Therefore all true goodness and righteousness is from him.
[2.] And partly because all the effects carry such a resemblance
with the Spirit. The fruit must be correspondent with the root or
nature of the plant on which it grows. If you are made light in the
Lord by the Spirit, you will bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in all
goodness, righteousness, and truth. Goodness ; the Spirit is called the
good Spirit : Ps. cxliii. 10, ' Teach me, for thou art my God ; thy Spirit
is good ; lead me into the land of uprightness ; ' Neh. ix. 20, ' Thou
gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them.' Now this operation is
accordingly; he maketh us good, kind, to love all with a love of
benevolence, and our fellow-christians with a love of complacency.
So for righteousness, or justice in all our dealings, giving every one
his due ; this is the fruit of the Spirit ; for, Eph. iv. 24, ' The new man
is created after God in righteousness and true holiness.' God hath
done so much to demonstrate his righteousness, that Christians have
not the spirit of their religion if they be not righteous. So for truth
or fidelity, whereby we carry ourselves sincerely, and free from all
hypocrisy and craft. The Spirit is often called the Spirit of truth; and
that holiness which he worketh in us is holiness of truth, or true
holiness : ' Therefore put away lying,' Eph. iv. 25 ; it is a sin contrary
to the new nature.
9. This Spirit God hath sent among us by the preaching of the gospel ;
for when lie saith, 'Ye are light in the Lord/ it implieth both the know
ledge of the gospel and the illumination of the Spirit ; the one as
concomitant with the other, and settling the belief of it in our hearts.
The doctrine of Christ bringeth the Spirit to us, and AVC receive it by
faith : Gal. iii. 2, ' Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or
by the hearing of faith ? ' John vii. 39, ' But this spake he of the Spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive.' We receive the Spirit
more plentifully by the gospel than by the law, and we receive it by
faith in Christ. Having made this way, I come now to propound a
particular point.
Doct. 1. That the Spirit which we receive by the gospel worketh all
goodness in the hearts of believers.
To illustrate this point, I shall show (1.) What is goodness ; (2.)
How this is the product of the Spirit of the gospel.
I. What is goodness ? I answer Goodness is either moral or
beneficial.
1. Moral goodness is our whole duty required by the law of God,
whatever is just and equal for us to perform : Deut. xxx. 15, ' I have set
before you life and good, death and evil.' Holiness is called good, and
sin evil ; and the whole duty of man elsewhere is called good : Micah
vi. 8, ' He hath showed thee, man, what is good ; and what doth
the Lord require of thee ? ' The totum hominis, the whole duty of
man, is bonum liominis, the whole good of man.
2. There is beneficial goodness, which is a branch of the former, and
implieth a readiness to do good to others to the utmost of our capacity ;
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 2G1
for all good is communicative of itself : Heb. xiii. 16, ' But to do
good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is
well pleased.' This duty must not be forgotten nor neglected, because
it showeth the due impress of our religion upon us. Well, then, tho
first sort of goodness is holiness, the second beneficence.
II. That this is the fruit and product of the Spirit by the gospel.
1. Let us see what the gospel doth to promote this goodness in the
world.
2. Upon what grounds we may expect the Spirit to co-operate there
with.
First, What the gospel doth to promote this goodness in the world.
1. By the laws and precepts of it, or the duties it requireth ; it re-
quireth us to be good, and to do good.
[1.] To be good ; for we are first made good before we can do good :
Luke vi. 45, ' A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth
forth that which is good ; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of
his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil : for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Every man hath a treasury or store
house within him, from whence all his actions are brought forth. He
that hath an honest heart, or a repository of good purposes and resolutions,
in short, whose whole heart is set upon doing good on all occasions, he
bringeth forth from thence good actions. Now the design of the Chris
tian religion is to make men good and to cure them of all evil ; it not
only inviteth and persuadeth men to be good, but offereth grace whereby
they may become good : Eph. ii. 10, ' For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works.' It offereth grace, whereby
men may be changed ; and being naturally bent to evil, may be dis
posed and inclined to good. This religion would not have us do good
by accident, but by nature, as having our hearts set towards it ; and
to work not occasionally, but from a habit and a principle of good
ness in ourselves, as being thus constituted and framed that we may
do it easily and with delight ; yea, it is a force if we do the contrary.
[2.] To do good, both as to God and men.
(1.) As to God, the great duty is love ; that we should love him,
and obey him as our rightful Lord and chief good and happiness.
This was our primitive duty, which we owed to our creator ; and
Christ came not to dissolve, but to establish it. He never intended to
rob God of a creature when he made any man a Christian ; for he
' redeemed us to God by his blood/ Kev. v. 9. That we might love
him and serve him ; love him with all our hearts, and serve him with
all our might, Mat. xxii. 37. Oh, what a good religion is this, where
our principal work is love and delight in him whom we serve and wor
ship ! We begin our happiness in our duty and love to God, that we
may be beloved of him. Whole Christianity is but an holy art to
leach us the way of loving and enjoying God.
(2.) To do good to men. Certainly that religion is good which only
employeth men in doing good, and obligeth us to seek the welfare of
others as we would do our own. It enjoineth us ' to do good to all,
especially to the household of faith,' Gal. vi. 10. We cannot take
delight in all, for some are an offence to the new nature which is in
us ; but we must do good to all, and seek their happiness. The love
262 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [8KB. IX.
of benevolence or good will is opposite to the hatred of enniit}', and the
love of complacency and delight to the hatred of aversation and offence.
We cannot take pleasure in sinners, but yet must do them good. Suppose
they have disobliged us, yet enemies are not excepted : Mat. v. 44,
' Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you.' None can be such enemies to us as we were to God in our
natural estate. Now it is the duty of a Christian to revenge injuries
with courtesies : Kom. xii. 14, ' Bless them which persecute you ; bless
and curse not ; and ver. 21, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome
evil with good.' This doing good God expecteth from men in every
capacity and relation. The magistrate is ' the minister of God to thee
for good,' Kom. xiii. 4. He is not so much to mind his own greatness
as the public benefit. The minister is to seek the good of souls, ' to
impart some spiritual gift/ Bom. i. 11, to be an instrument of increas
ing light or life. Fellow-christians should seek to do good one to another,
and value all their talents, not by possession, but use : Luke xvi. 8,
'The lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely.'
People in an inferior quality, as servants: Eph. vi. 8, 'Knowing that
whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the
Lord, whether he be bond or free.' If they make conscience of doing
good in their callings and relations, and go about these duties as service
to God, and profitable to men, it is a good thing, and accepted by the
Lord. Thus the gospel requireth we should still be doing good, some
thing that conduceth to the glory of God and the benefit of others.
2. By the discoveries it rnaketh. The greatest, truest, and fullest
prospect of God's goodness to mankind we have in the gospel There
' the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared,'
Titus iii. 4. When God was displeased for the breach of the first
covenant, and man had fallen from his primitive holiness, and brought
himself irreparably under guilt and a curse, the Lord took occasion by
his misery to open a door of hope to us by Christ, and hath set up a
new covenant of righteousness and life founded on the death of his Son,
where grace taketh the throne, and the judge is Christ, and the rule is
the gospel, and pardon and salvation is offered to all those who with a
ready and thankful mind are willing to return to their obedience to
God ; and God standeth with open arms to receive all those that run
for refuge to this covenant, and take sanctuary at this grace, as willing
to bestow upon them all kind of mercies and grace to help. Surely
this word may well be called ' the good word of God,' Heb. vi. 5, and
' the glad tidings of good things,' Kom. x. 15, the best news that ever
was brought to man's ear. Now the impress should be according to
the seal ; a good religion should breed a good people. When such
wonders of goodness are discovered, it should make us more ready for
our duty to God and man.
[1.] To God. The love and goodness of God in Christ is the great
engine of the gospel, and the great motive and encouragement to per
suade us to our duty : 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, 'For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead ;
and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again.'
God would be obeyed by his people, not as slaves, but as children, and
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 263
would have the spring and rise of our obedience to be love and gratitude ;
1 herefore doth he oblige us at so high a rate, and cany on the tenor
of his grace and mercy in such an astonishing and wonderful way, that
none of his commandments might be grievous to us, being sweetened
by his love. He will be served, not as an imperious sovereign, but as
the God of love ; not with a grudging mind, but with delight and
readiness ; not as doing good by force, but as encouraged with a deep
sense of this goodness.
[2.] To men. Surely we will imitate what we prize and esteem.
No man can be thankful to God who is not merciful to his brother ;
so much goodness demonstrated will breed goodness in us. When the
apostle had asked a contribution to the necessities of the poor saints at
Jerusalem, he useth this argument, 2 Cor. viii. 8, 9, ' I speak not by
commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to
prove the sincerity of your love ; for ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." Christians can want
no motives to goodness when they consider the liberality and bounty of
God to them in Christ, and those riches of grace provided for them.
If they sincerely believe these things, they will have somewhat in their
own bosoms. that will strongly persuade them not to be wanting to
occasions and opportunities of doing good.
3. The examples it propoundeth to our imitation, not mean and
blemished ones, such as we may find among our fellow-creatures, but
the high and glorious examples of God and Christ himself. There is
a good God set before us, that we may not take up with any low pattern
of goodness. He is represented to us as all goodness : Ps. cxix. 68,
' Thou art good, and doest good.' He is good in his nature, and
his work is agreeable to his nature; nothing is wanting to it, or
defective in it. Nothing can be added to it to make it better.
'O 6Wo>9 o> TO irpwTov Philo. The first being must needs be the
first good. As soon as we conceive there is a God, we presently con
ceive that he is good, as being both the fountain and pattern of all the
good that is in the creatures.
[1.] As to his nature, he is originally good, good in himself, and
good to others ; as the sun hath light in himself, and giveth light to
all other things. Essentially good ; not only good, but goodness
itself. Goodness in us is an accessary quality or superadded gift ; but
in God it is not a quality, but his essence ; as a vessel that is gilded
with gold, and a vessel that is all gold ; the gilding or lustre is a
superadded quality; but in a vessel all of gold, the lustre and the sub
stance is the same. God is infinitely good ; the creature's good is
limited, but there is nothing to limit the perfection of God, or give it
any measure. He is an ocean of goodness without banks or bottom.
Alas ! what is our drop to this ocean ! God is immutably good ; his
goodness can never be more or less than it is ; as there can be no
addition to it, so no subtraction from it. Man in his innocency was
peccabilis, afterward peccator ; but God ever was and is good. Now
this is the pattern propounded to us, but his nature is a great deep.
Therefore
[2.] As to his work, he doeth good. What hath God been acting
264 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. IX.
upon the great theatre of the world but goodness for these six thousand
years ? Acts xiv. 17, ' Nevertheless he hath not left himself without
a witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' He left
not himself without a witness, dyaOoTrotwv, not by taking vengeance of
their idolatries, but by inviting benefits. Now this is propounded to
our imitation, that our whole life may be nothing else but doing good :
Mat. v. 48, ' Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.' It is
in Luke vi. 36, 'Be ye therefore merciful, as your heavenly Father is
merciful ; ' that is, learn of God how to exercise and show forth your
goodness, not in a confined way to friends only, but to enemies ; not
in a scanty measure, but in full proportion. The other example is
Jesus Christ, or God incarnate : Acts x. 38, ' How God anointed Jesu*
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about
doing good ; ' that is, to the bodies and souls of men, giving sight to
the blind, limbs to the lame, health to the sick, and life to the dead.
Christ did nothing by way of malice and revenge, he used not the
power that he had to make men blind, or lame, or to kill any ; no,
not his worst enemies, when he could easily do it, and justly might
have done it. No ; he went up and down doing good. He rebuked
his disciples when they requested him to destroy those that had con
temned them by calling for fire from heaven, telling them, 'They knew
not of what spirit they were of,' &c., Luke ix. 55, 56. It was unlike
his spirit and design ; all his miracles were acts of relief and succour,
not pompous nor destructive, bating only his blasting of the unfruitful
fig-tree, which was an emblematical warning to the Jews, and suffering
the devil's entering into the herd of swine, which was a necessary
demonstration of the devil's malice and destructive cruelty, who, if he
could not afflict men and destroy men, would enter into the herd of
swine that the poor creatures might perish in the sea. I say nothing
now of his abundant grace discovered in our redemption. Surely if it
be true religion to be like what we worship as God, we must be like
this. God and this Christ. Certainly goodness should wholly possess
us, and dispose of our lives and actions ; a religion that holdeth forth
such a good God and a good Christ should breed a good people.
4. The arguments by which it enforceth this goodness, or the rewards
and encouragements which it offereth, which is the supreme blessedness
or the chief good. We all desire good ; any good will serve a carnal
brutish heart : Ps. iv. 6, ' There be many that say, Who will show us
any good ? ' but the sober and thinking part of mankind will not be
put off so ; they are groping and feeling about for an eternal good ;
and grope they may, but still fail of what they seek after, till they
come to the gospel to find it. There God hath showed man what is
his chief good and proper happiness, or the greatest good that can be
attained or imagined, for beyond God there is nothing. And the
happiness which the gospel offereth is
[1.] God reconciled.
[2.] God finally and fully enjoyed. Our happiness by the way con
sists in reconciliation with God, but at the end of the journey, in the
vision and fruition of God ; this is happiness indeed.
(1.) Our reconciliation with God through Christ, as soon as we
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 265
enter into his peace. This is that which we only are capable of here,
and the good we are now only admitted unto : Rom. v. 1 , ' Being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.' As soon as ever we turn to him by faith and repentance, he
giveth us the pardon of all our sins, and accepteth us in Christ. The
sentence of death is reversed, and we are delivered from wrath to come;
and not only so, but are also made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. We have a right for the present, though not the pos
session ; and there is a long train of blessings which we enjoy by virtue
of this right, as a comfortable sense of the love of God, peace in our
own conscience, an interest in the care of God's providence, the audience
of our prayers, the moderating and sanctifying of all our afflictions.
Now all these should mollify and soften. the heart, and melt it into love
to God and man. Shall God be so good to us, and we so evil ? Surely
such a lively sense of God's love and grace should highly and potently
promote goodness in the world.
(2.) The vision and fruition of God in the heavenly glory, that is
the great good offered to us, when our nature shall be perfected, and
by its most perfect acts be employed about the most perfect objects,
and God shall be all in all, giving out the fullest communications of
his grace, and that for ever. The soul shall be perfect without spot or
blemish, and this vile body made like Christ's glorious body, and we
shall forever remain in the sight and love of God ; and what is sweeter
than his presence ? Ps. xvi. 11, ' In thy presence is fulness of joy, and
at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.' And this without fear
of change : 1 Thes. iv. 17, ' And so shall we ever be with the Lord/
If anything be good, this is good, to live for ever in the sight of God,,
and to love him, and be beloved of him. Now should not all this-
rnake us good ? and should we not train up ourselves in a way of
loving and rejoicing in God now, that in our very work we may have
a foretaste of our reward and end ? The object of our love and service
is good, and what floweth from him but goodness ? and what do we
expect from him but such goodness as our hearts cannot sufficiently
conceive of?
Secondly, Upon what grounds we may expect the Spirit to co-operate
herewith.
1. Because God worketh congruously, as with respect to the subject
upon which he worketh, so with respect to the object by which he
worketh. The subject is the heart of man, and therefore he ' draweth
us with the cords of a man,' Hosea xi. 4. The object is the gospel, a
good word, or the good knowledge of God, and therefore a suitable
means to work goodness in us. There we have good precepts and good
promises, and an account of God's wonderful goodness and love in
Christ; and 'therefore the fruit of his Spirit is in all goodness.' As
the seal is graven, so the wax receiveth the stamp. The seal is the
word, the wax is our heart, and the hand that applieth it is the Spirit
of God ; he is the principal cause, and maketh the gospel effectual to
produce in us a frame of heart answerable to the scheme and structure
of the word. In short, the good Spirit, by the good word, maketh us
good, and so all suiteth.
2. The Spirit produceth this effect as a witness of the truth of the
266 SERMONS UPON EPHES1ANS V. [SER. IX.
gospel, which being a supernatural doctrine, needed to be attested
from heaven, that the truth of it might be known by the mighty power
of God which doth accompany it, working in our hearts effects suitable
to the tenor of the word. Whatever doctrine can change the soul of
man, and convert it to God, is of God, and owned by God. When
such a holy doctrine sanctifieth us, we see the truth of it : John xvii.
17, ' Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth.' When
such deliverance is published, it maketh us free indeed : John viii. 32,
' And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'
When such a heavenly doctrine breedeth in us a heavenly mind :
1 Cor. ii. 12, ' For we have not received the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God.' When such a spiritual doctrine bringeth in more
of the Spirit: 2 Cor. iii. 8, 'How shall not the ministration of the
Spirit be rather glorious ? ' Such a wise doctrine will fill us with
wisdom ; such a doctrine of grace and goodness breedeth all goodness
in us, and so we have God's attestation to his. truth.
3. That thereby God may signify his peculiar and elective love
to his people. When he worketh all goodness in their hearts by
his Spirit, they come to discern that he loveth them by a special love.
Love or hatred cannot be known by anything that is before us, any
outward dispensation whatsoever, Eccles. ix. 1 ; but when by the good
Spirit of the Lord we are made like God and like Christ, and have the
prints of the good word upon us, then we know his love to us : 1
John iv. 13, ' Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us,
because he hath given us of his Spirit.' And what spirit is that but
a Spirit of love and goodness ? for ' God is love,' ver. 16. Then we
transcribe our pattern, and are brought into a conformity to God.
4. God maketh an offer of his grace to invite us to seriousness in
attending on this gospel. He excludeth none in the offer, and there
fore we must not exclude ourselves. None miss it but those that
neglect and forfeit it through their carelessness, and disobedience, and
ingratitude. If you would observe the seasons of his sanctifying
motions, it would be much better* with you : Prov. i. 23, ' Turn ye at
my reproof ; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make
known my words unto you.'
Use 1. Is information.
1. It informeth us how false the prejudices of the world are, who
think the life of godliness a severe rigid thing, as if men did put off
all good nature as soon as they enter upon the practice of it. No ;
* The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness.' There cannot be a more
delightful spectacle, unless it be to a man blinded with malice and
prej udice and brutish lusts, than to see such a good man as is described
in the word of God ; for he is one that seeketh to do good to all, and
hurt to none ; looks for no great matters for himself in the world,
bustles not for honour and greatness, but gives place, or at least due
respect to all; he condescends to the meanest, envies none, revenges
himself on none, but is courteous to all, beneficial to all according to
his ability and opportunity. As to God, his business is to love him
and live to him ; he counteth it his happiness to live with him, and is
careful to keep up a due remembrance of him by daily invocation and
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 267
worship ; always rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and liveth in obedience to
the motions of the sanctifying Spirit, so that his life is not tainted with
the blot of any heinous sin. He is still encouraging himself with the
promises of another world, levelling and directing all his actions
thither. This is the true good man ; and can spite and infidelity
object anything against it ? You will say, There are few such in the
world. Ans. The more the pity, when so many helps and means to
effect it. It is the fault of the men, not of the rule. But many such
there are; yea, all the children of God are such in some measure.
The world seeth it and hateth them, because their holy and heavenly
life upbraideth their flesh-pleasing and carnal course.
2. It informeth us that the children of light should be full of good
ness, or else they do not improve their advantages. We have a good
word to direct us, after we had lost the knowledge of God, and of the
world to come, and the way thither ; that all this should be revealed to
us by Christ clearly and plainly. And not only so, but we have a good
Spirit to imprint this knowledge upon our hearts, and to give us a
heavenly mind and life. Now what remaineth but that we should be
good also ? for what should a bad people do with a good religion ?
This good word, that assureth us of God's readiness to do mankind the
greatest good ; this good Spirit, whose great office it is to regenerate
and make us good. But alas ! many are more forward to talk of the
word than live by it, and not so careful to walk in the Spirit as to
boast of it.
3. That all the goodness that is in us is the fruit of the Spirit ; he
infuseth the graces, he exciteth the acts ; therefore the glory of all
that we have and do must be transferred to God. God hath a greater
share in all the good that we do than we ourselves. We may say of
our best actions, as Augustin of his illegitimate child, ' I had nothing
in him but my sin ;' nothing is ours but the defect, the good is God's.
Again, on Ps. cxxxvii. he saith, Opus tuum vide in me, Domine ! non
meum, &c. Kegard, Lord, in me, not my works, but thine own : if
thoti regardest my works, thou daninest me ; if thine own, thou
crownest me : since whatsoever good I have, I have it from thee, it is
therefore rather thine than mine. Thus humbly and thankfully should
we be affected. God is good of himself, good in himself, yea, goodness
itself ; there is no good above, or besides, or beyond him ; it is all from
him, if it be good, and therefore to him be all the glory.
Use 2. To exhort us to increase in all goodness. (1.) Moral good
ness, which is holiness. Now holiness is the glory of God, and there
fore must needs be our excellency: Exod. xv. 11, 'Who is like unto
thee, Lord, among the gods ? who is like thee, glorious in holiness,
fearful in praises, doing wonders ? ' So that to be holy is to put on the
royal robe of the king of all the earth. Surely the more a man
partakes of the nature and image of God, the more excellent he is.
(2.) Beneficial goodness, or kindness and mercy ; this is the first and
chiefest name of God. So God told Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 19, ' I will
cause all my goodness to pass before thee,' when he proclaimed his
name : Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, ' And the Lord passed by before him, and
proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
268 SERMONS UPON EPHKSIANS V. [SER. X.
thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin ; ' Ps. xxxiii. 5,
' The whole earth is full of thy goodness : ' Ps. cxlv. 9, ' The Lord is
good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works/ This doth
first insinuate with us, and command our respect to him. The first
temptation that ever was, was to weaken the conceit of his goodness.
Now this is that which we are to imitate, to be good to all, and to do
as much good as possibly we can.
SERMON X.
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and
truth EPH. v. 9.
/
I)OCT. 2. That one choice fruit of the Spirit wrought in the children
of light is righteousness.
To explain this point, I will show you (1.) What is righteousness ;
(2.) That this is one of the fruits of the Spirit ; (3.) That it is a
choice fruit because of the benefits which accrue to us thereby.
I. What is righteousness ? Sometimes it is taken as largely as
holiness, for that grace which doth incline us to perform our duty to
God and man ; for there is a righteousness even in godliness, or giving
God his due honour and worship: Mat. xxii. 21, 'Render therefore
unto Caesar the things which are Cassar's, and unto God the things
that are God's.' More strictly it is taken for that grace which doth
dispose and incline us to give every one his due, and is a branch of
that love and charity which is the sum of the whole second table : Rom.
xiii. 7, 8, ' Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute
is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom
honour. Owe no man anything but to love one another ; for he that
loveth another hath fulfilled the law/ There is a debt of justice that
we owe to ordinary men, and of subjection to those whom God hath set
over us, which must be discharged. One debt you must still owe to
all men, and that is charity, and it must be so paid as that it be always
owing. Now here the word ' righteousness ' must be taken in a con
venient latitude, mixed of both senses, an inclination to do that which
we know to be holy and just. Now this righteousness in Christians
is a fruit of the Spirit, and so a mark of their union with Christ ;
and therefore it must be advanced to a higher degree of perfection
than that justice in heathens which is the fruit only of a natural
conscience in us. It must look like a thing that cometh from a
nature renewed and healed, or a divine supernatural principle, which
doth not only alter the kind, but advance the degree of it. To
evidence which
1. Let us see what is the office of righteousness.
2. To what an height Christianity advanceth it above" all other
institutions in the world.
First, What is the office and part of justice and righteousness?
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 269
1. To seek the peace and welfare of the several communities and
societies in which we live, or in preferring the public good before our
own. We owe a debt of love to our country. God directeth his people
to seek the good of Babylon while his providence continued them
there : Jer. xxix. 7, ' And seek the peace of the city whither I have
caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it ;
for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace ; ' that is, in regard of their
own interest in the common rest and quietness during their abode
there ; otherwise we are to pray for the downfall of Babylon. All
passengers are concerned in the vessel wherein they are embarked.
And if we are to seek the welfare of Babylon, much more are we to
seek the welfare of Sion, where we live in Christian society: Ps. cxxii.
, ' Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love thee.'
A Christian community is represented as a body, and in a body the
members should have a care one of another, and for the whole : 1 Cor.
xii. 15, ' If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of
the body ; is it therefore not of the body ? ' Well, then, this is the
first part and office of justice, to perform the debt we owe to our
country, for public interests must be preferred before private.
2. To give to every man his due ; to use faithful dealing in all the
duties we owe to others, or in all actions wherein we are employed and
entrusted by others. We must be just in our trading and bargaining,
according to the value of the things ; in paying our debts, and pre
serving the rights of others, and giving due honour to the eminently
holy. Because it is endless to instance in all, therefore there is a
general rule : Mat. vii. 12, ' Therefore all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the
law and the prophets.' The equity of the rule is built upon two
grounds the actual equality of all men by nature, and the possible
equality of all men by condition and state of life. The actual equality
of all men by nature, for they were all made by the same God : Job
xxxi. 15, ' Did not he that made me in the womb make him ? and did
not one fashion us in the womb ? ' So Mai. ii. 10, ' Have we not all
one father ? hath not one God created us ? Why do we then deal
treacherously every man against his neighbour ? ' So Neh. v. 5, ' Our
flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and our children as their children.'
The possible equality of all men by condition and state of life: we
may be brought into the same state. All are alike subject to corrup
tion arid calamity. To corruption, therefore be not severe on the
failings of others : Gal. vi. 1, ' Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a
fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' To calamity : Heb.
xiii. 3, ' Kemember them that are in bonds, as bound with them ; and
them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.'
You may be exposed to like calamities.
3. Fidelity in our relations is another part of justice; for all these
relations imply a right which is due to others. So we must be just to
superiors and inferiors. Magistrates must be just in governing: 2
Sam. xxiii. 3, ' He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear
of God.' And it is said of David, 2 Sam. viii. 15, that ' he executed
judgment and justice to all his people.' A good magistrate is
270 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. X.
, a living law. And people must be just in obeying ; inferiors
in performing their duties to their superiors, children to their parents :
Eph. vi. 1, ' Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right/
There is a right depending there. Masters to servants : Col. iv. 1,
' Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.' Wives
to their husbands : Col. iii. 18, ' Wives, submit yourselves to your
own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.' So proportionably to all other
relations.
Secondly, To what a height Christianity advanceth these things.
1. Because it deduceth things from a higher principle, the fixed
principle of a nature renewed by Christ. There are in it three things-
(1.) Another nature put into us, a fixed principle ; (2.) And this by
the Spirit's operation, and so it is a supernatural principle ; (3.) This
working after a kindly manner, by faith in Christ, and love to God in
Christ, and so it is a forcible principle.
[1.] It is a fixed principle : Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'
When the heart is thus constituted and framed, that to be unjust, or
to do anything unjust, is as unsuitable to them as it is for venomous
berries to grow upon a choice vine. As it is said of such a one that he
did good quid aliter facere non poterat, because he could not do other
wise, the same doth the new nature ; it doth more than moral habits :
1 John iii. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for
his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of
God.' Now if the same grace that maketh us submissive to God
maketh us also just and harmless to men, surely it is a great advantage
when righteousness is another nature to us.
[2.] It is a supernatural principle. The mere motion of our own
human spirit cannot enforce us, and incline us to righteousness so-
much as the Spirit of God : 'The gentiles do by nature the things-
contained in. the law,' Bom. ii. 14. But here is a divine power, and
so a more perfect principle. Take the human spirit as coming from
God ut author natures, as the author of nature : Kom. i. 19, ' Because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them ; for God hath
showed it unto them ; ' or ut author gratice, as the author of grace,
as God hath renewed them, and given them a new frame : Eph. ii. 10.
' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works/
But here is actual assistance : Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' I will put my Spirit
into you, and cause you to walk in my statutes ; and ye shall keep my
judgments and do them/ The short is this, nature cannot do as
much as grace, nor habitual grace infused so much as grace actually
assisted by a divine and powerful assistance.
[3.] It is a forcible and kindly principle ; for it is such a principle
as worketh by the love of God, and hopes of glory ; for ' Faith worketh
by love,' Gal v. 6, as the apostle expresseth it. What will not such
a principle do? faith representing what God hath done for us in
Christ, and what he will further do. If we look back, what wonders
of love doth faith represent to work us to an obedience to God's will 1
If we look forward, what hopes of glory and blessedness are set before
us ! Kedemption by Christ and hopes of glory are more powerful and
forcible principles than any reasons mere bare nature can suggest. No
VEK. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHICSTANS v. 271
wonder that they who never felt the force of faith and love to God
upon their souls do so much cry up bare formality. Take faith as it
representelh heaven to us, or our proper felicity in the vision and
fruition of God, surely that doth establish righteousness upon sure
terms, and advanceth it at a higher rate than all the arguments
taken from our worldly interest and conveniences: Acts xxiv. 14-16,
' Believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets : and
have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there
shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And
herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence
towards God and towards men.' Take the other principle, love to
God. Indeed the immediate principle of justice is love to man, for
all the second table is comprised in this, to ' love thy neighbour as
thyself ; ' but love to man is but a stream from a higher fountain,
which is love to God: 1 John iv. 21, 'And this commandment we
have from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also.' Our
love to our brother must be both excited and measured by our love to
God. We must love all mankind, and all his creatures which bear his
image ; his natural image in all men, his spiritual image in his saints.
2. Because it measureth and directeth things by a more perfect rule
than the law of nature. Our rule is God's word, which is a more pure
and perfect rule than so much of the law as remaineth written upon
man's heart after the fall. As natural conscience worketh more coldly
than a principle of grace or faith working by love, so it is a more
imperfect rule and direction to us, and we have a larger understanding
of our duty by what God hath revealed in his word than otherwise we
could have. We are told, Prov. xv. 21, 'That a man of under
standing walketh uprightly.' To be thorough in our duty there
needeth to be a large, deep, and solid judgment, sufficiently informed
out of the word of God. But what instruction doth the word of God
give in this point? To tell you that were to transcribe the whole
bible, so far as it concerneth this duty of man to man. But in the
general
[1.] It requireth to be just in all things ; to keep a good conscience
in the smallest matter ; not only in our public and most momentous
actions, but justice is to be observed in lesser things as well as in
greater ; for where heaven and hell are concerned, nothing is little :
Luke xvi. 10, ' He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also
in much ; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.'
Many will be righteous in some things, but in others dispense with
themselves ; but the good Christian is careful to avoid all evil.
[2.] It requireth us to be just at all times, always exercising right
eousness as God giveth opportunity and occasion : Ps. cvi. 3, ' Blessed
are they which keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all
times/ Not for a fit or pang, but ever ; when it is cross to our^ inter
ests as well as when it befriendeth them. A Christian is to be just to
friends and enemies. Many will be just to their friends, but there is
nothing so disingenuous, bad, and cruel, but they think they may say
it and do it to their enemies; but we must deprive none of their right
[3.] To be not only just, but strictly just in our dealings : Dent,
xvi. 20, ' That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou
272 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiU. X.
mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.'
It is in the margin, and so in the Hebrew, Justice, justice shalt thou
follow ; that is, exact justice : it should be done in such eminency,
that it may appear that God's people are notoriously much better than
other men are. If you be but as they, you harden the carnal world,
and they think there is no great matter in religion : 1 Thes. v. 21,
* Abstain from all appearance of evil ; ' at least when the honour of
religion lieth at stake. I shall not be shy in giving you an eminent
example of justice, which Austin thought fit twice to commemorate in
his sermons. ' I shall tell you,' saith he, ' what was done by a very poor
man at the time when I lived at Milan ; the man that I tell you of
was so poor, that he was under an usher of a grammar-school, but a
sincere and real Christian. This very poor man, who had hardly
wherewith to sustain his life, found a purse of two hundred crowns ;
but being mindful of that justice which God requireth of his people, he
set up in some public place a bill, giving notice of what he had found,
that if any man had lost such a sum, he should come to such a place,
to such a man, and receive it again. He that had lost the money
heareth of the bill, cometh to the man, and giving sure tokens that it
was his, he fully returned what he had found, without any defalcation
or diminution. The other rejoicing that he had heard of his money
again, and willing to make some requital, giveth him the tenth part,
twenty of these crowns ; but he would not take it ; he offereth him ten,
but he ref useth ; at length desireth him that at least he would accept of
but five, still the man that found the purse refuseth it. The other
seeing the honesty of the man, throweth him the purse, saying, I have
lost nothing, if you will take nothing. my brethren/ saith Austin,
* what a strife was here between an honest finder and a thankful rewarder !
The world was the theatre of this conflict, the spectator God. The
finder at length being overcome by importunity, taketh what was offered,
but presently gave it all to the poor, not reserving one crown for his
own use. Consider, my brethren, such a glorious example, and con
sider what God's law can do upon the heart of the obedient : Justice,
justice shalt thou follow.' Thus far he.
[4.] It requireth us to be just, whatever temptation we have to the
contrary.
(1.) Of riches and worldly ends, which easily blind the mind, and
will tempt us to authorise our usurpations of another's right with fair
pretences. But, 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, ' They that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money
is the root of all evil.' Indulge it, and it will soon make a breach upon
your duty ; but when the lust of wealth is mortified, temptations have
the less power over you. A man that is governed and influenced by
carnal interest can never have this habit and disposition of righteous
ness, to carry it so equitably and fairly in all his dealings ; for he that
mindeth nothing but his own interest will soon believe that whatever is
profitable is lawful ; might and force will be right to him. Therefore
you are never safe till you have learned to prefer your duty before
your interest.
(2.) Of friends, kindred, and relations. We are often tempted to be
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 273
unjust for their sakes, when it may be we are a little shy in our own
case ; for there conscience would boggle at it as too gross, but friend
ship puts an honest pretence upon it. I must love my friend, but
usque ad aras ; where religion forbids me, I must not keep friendship
with men to break amity with God. He is our chief friend, and other
obligations eease when his law interposeth by way of bar and restraint.
Your friends may be dear to you, but truth and righteousness must be
dearer : 2 Sam. xiii. 3, ' But Amnon had a friend, whose name was
Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother ; and Jonadab was a
subtile man.' It was an abuse of friendship when Jonadab would
countenance Amnon in his sin, and so his friend proved his greatest
foe by his pernicious counsel ; though he was a friend to his person or
sin, yet a foe to his soul. True friendship is grounded in God and
virtue ; to do for our friend, where his law is in no danger to be broken,
is true friendship : Prov. xxvii. 6, ' Faithful are the wounds of a friend ,
but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.' To reprove them, and cross
them in their sins, is to promote their salvation. So it holdeth good
as to our party. It is gross partiality to aggravate the faults of others,
and spare them because they are of our combination and society ; because
then for interest you lose conscience, when we think all is right and
well done by those whom we best like, and all wrong that is never so
well done by adversaries. Or else we shall soon fall into gross
unrighteousness ; as Barnabas was led away by Peter's dissimulation.
No ; when Peter walked not uprightly, Paul withstood him to the face,
Gal. ii. 12, 13. Otherwise we have a stone and a stone, a weight and
a weight.
(3.) We must not be drawn to do an unrighteous deed by fear or
flattery. Sometimes fear is an evil counsellor, and we run into a snare
if we be not fortified against it : Prov. xxix. 25, ' The fear of man
bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe/
Fear must be checked by a sure trust. God can bring us off from an
inconvenience better than any injustice of ours. So by flattery many
are enticed into evil, which otherwise they could not bring their hearts
to commit : Prov. xxvi. 28, ' A flattering mouth worketh ruin ; ' Prov.
xxix. 5, ' A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his
feet ; ' that by worldly allurements or fair pretences and crafty insinu
ations draweth others into sin.
(4.) Do nothing unjust even for religion's sake. When men are
secure of their end, they caie not what means they use. Alas ! we
should not step out of God's way for the greatest good in the world.
A good end will not warrant an ill action. God needeth not our
iniquity to uphold his interest. Christ hath other ways to get up
than upon the devil's shoulders. Nothing dishonoureth God more
than when men deceive, lie, break oaths, rebel against lawful authority,
or use any sinful means to secure and promote religion. It is flat un
belief, and making more haste than good speed, to ease ourselves of our
burdens and discontents by any sinful shifts : Job xiii. 7, ' Will ye
speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for him ? ' God needeth
not my lie for his glory : Rom. iii. 7, ' For if the truth of God hath
more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also
judged a sinner ? ' He will have no honour tendered to him but by
VOL. xix. s
274 SERMONS UPON EPEESIANS V. [SER. X.
lawful and approved means. It argueth our impatiency and ill thoughts
of God when we seek, like Jacob, to get the blessing by a wile.
(5.) Not by opportunity. Be not tempted to be unrighteous or
unjust when put into places of power and trust; such have an oppor
tunity of being unrighteous. Many are innocent because they have no
opportunity to be otherwise. It is said, John xii. 6, that ' Judas was a
thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.' If we will find
the sin, God may righteously find the occasion. And when corrupt
affections and suitable temptations and objects meet, it is dangerous to-
the soul. Well, then, the scripture showeth that we must not depart
from our rule and resolution of righteous and just dealing upon any
temptation whatsoever. Many resolve to be just, but when the tempta
tion cometh, their resolution is shaken. Oh, remember, the greatest
gain will prove a loss and a hard bargain in the issue : Mat. xvi. 26,.
' What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul ? ' He that seeketh to pleasure others, or help himself by
unjust means, doth but consult shame to himself and his friends.
3. Because it referreth them to a more noble end, which is the glory
of God: 1 Cor. x. 31, 'Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatso
ever ye do, do all to the glory of God; ' Phil. i. 11, ' Being filled with
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory
and praise of God/ Now he that propoundeth to himself such an end
is more exact and thorough in the use of means than another can be
that only mindeth his own interest ; for the baser the end. is, the more
base are a man's actions ; but the nobler end he hath, he liveth at a
higher rate than others do. That which is done for God must be done
in a godlike manner, or as will become the excellencies of God.
II. That this is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It must needs be so,,
because it suiteth with his office and personal operations. The Spirit
is to be our guide, sanctifier, and comforter. As our guide, he doth
direct and enlighten our minds ; as our sanctifier, he doth change our
hearts ; and as our comforter, he doth pacify, and clear, and quiet our
consciences. Now this fruit of righteousness is conducible to all these
ends, or agreeable with these offices.
1. As our guide, he doth enlighten our minds with saving knowledge ;
and no knowledge is saving but what endeth in righteousness ; as here :
'You are light in the Lord: walk as children of the light; for the
fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness ; ' Jer. xxii. 1 6,
'He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with
him : was not this to know me, saith the Lord ? ' We have no true
knowledge of God, either of his nature or of the will of God, till this
knowledge influence the duties of our callings and relations ; for God
is no further savingly known than he is obeyed, and that in all things
which belong to our duty.
2. As our sanctifier, he doth change our hearts ; and the true fruits
of repentance and change of heart are the works of righteousness :
Isa. i. 16, 17, ' Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your
doings from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil, learn to do well ; seek
judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the
widow.' This is particularly insisted on as the proper fruit of their
change. So Dan. iv. 27, ' Break off thy sins by righteousness, and
thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.' .Repentance is a
YEK. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 275
breaking off our former course of sin. And to a king that was an open
persecutor Daniel preacheth righteousness and mercy. They that con
tinue in their former unjust courses never yet repented. So Zech.
viii. 16, 17, 'These are the things which ye shall do, Speak ye every
man the truth to his neighbour ; execute the judgment of truth and
peace in your gates : and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts
against his neighbour ; and love no false oath : for all these are things
that I hate, saith the Lord.' God would have their repentance thus
expressed. Thus in the general ; but more particularly, the fruit and
work of the Spirit tendeth to this end, to make us like God, and amiable
to God, to fit us for communion with God, and to glorify God in the
eyes of the world ; and much of this is done by righteousness ; cer
tainly nothing is done without it.
[1.] By it we are made like God, and do resemble his divine perfec
tions : Ps. cxlv. 17, ' The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy
in all his works.' There is a perfect holiness in his nature, and a con-
decency in all his actions ; and when our natures are sanctified, and
all our actions are righteous and holy, we are framed after this pattern :
Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness.'
[2.] The work of the Spirit is to make us acceptable and pleasing
unto God. Now the just and righteous man is an object of his com
placency : Prov. xv. 9, ' The way of the wicked is abomination unto
the Lord ; but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.' The
Lord loveth all his creatures with a general love, but with a special
love he loveth those that bear his image. He doth not love any be
cause they are rich and mighty, fair and beautiful, valiant and strong,
but as holy and righteous. So it is said, Prov. xxi. 3, ' To do justice
and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.' God hath
required both, and men should make conscience of both ; yet the one
is to be preferred before the other, though the one be a duty of the
first table, the other of the second ; because moral and substantial
duties are better than ceremonial. Internal duties are to be preferred
before external, and duties evident by natural light before things of ,
positive institution ; as appeareth by this, that God doth accept of
moral duties without ceremonial observances : ' In every nation, he
that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him,'
Acts x. 35. But God never accepteth of ceremonial observances with
out moral duties ; he still rejecteth their offerings when they neglected
justice : Micah vi. 7, 8, ' Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first
born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?
He hath showed thee, man, what is good : and what doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God ?' Again, he dispenseth with ceremonials and externals
of religion when they come in competition with moral duties, even of
the second table ; as David's eating the show-bread when an hungered,
Mat. xii. 3, 4. But he never dispenseth with moral duties. Well, then,
how right and punctual soever we be in other things, unless we show
mercy, and do justice, we are not accepted with God, though we are
zealous for or against ceremonies, or are of the strictest party in re
ligion. Indeed, we cannot say they are better than faith, and love, and
276 SERMONS UPON EPHESTANS V. [SfiR. X.
the fear of God, and hope in his grace ; for these are the substantial
duties of the first table. And compare substantiate with substantiate,
first-table duties are more weighty ; but compare internals of the second
with externals of the first, moral duties of the second with the cere
monies of the first, duties natural and evident with the merely positive
and instituted, these are more weighty. To conclude, let me add that
of the psalmist : Ps. xi. 7, ' The righteous Lord loveth righteousness ;
his countenance doth behold the upright.'
[3.] Kighteousness fitteth for communion with God. True it is
the righteous have an easy access to God, and are sure of audience :
Ps. xvii. 15, 'As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.'
Saul will not see my face, but this comforteth me, that I can behold
thy face. Lord, thou wilt look upon me, be gracious to me, and hear
my prayer, because I desire to come before thee in righteousness.
God will not hear the prayers of the unjust, nor accept their offerings,
'till judgment run down as a river, and righteousness as a mighty
stream,' Amos v. 23, 24 ; and rejecteth the Jewish fast, Isa. Iviii.,
because they did not loose the bands of wickedness, and undo the
heavy burden, and let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke.
[4.] The work of the Spirit is to enable us to glorify God in the
eyes of the world, which is very much done by righteousness ; for this
is very lovely and venerable in the eyes of the worst sort of men. A
Christian, if he had no other engagement upon him, yet, for the honour
of God and the credit of religion, he should do those things which
are lovely and comely in themselves, and so esteemed by the world.
Natural conscience reverenceth righteousness : Mark vi. 20, ' Herod
feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and observed
him/ When you give every one their due, you bring more honour to
God and credit to religion ; you can better hold up the credit of it
against contradiction. Justice is so lovely a thing, partly as it is a
stricture of the image of God ; it is said, Prov. xii. 26, ' The righteous
is more excellent than his neighbour ; ' for all excellency and perfection
is determined by conformity to God. And partly because the welfare
of human society is promoted by it ; for ' these things are good and pro
fitable to men/ Titus iii. 8. They are such good things as the world
is most capable to know and own. There are some things which none
but Christians themselves approve, as the positive rites of religion, or
the peculiar mysteries thereof. These the carnal world are no capable
judges of. Acts xviii. 13-15, ' This fellow persuadeth men to worship
God contrary to law. And when Paul was about to open his mouth,
Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong, or wicked lewd-
ness, ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you ; but if it be
a question of words, and names, and of your law, look ye to it, for I
will be no judge of such matters/ But there are other things which
the world approveth ; there are certain common principles wherein we
agree. Nature approveth goodness, justice, and truth, as corrupt as it
is, though not faith and sacraments. The unbelieving world reveren
ceth these things as good, and of a divine original.
3. The third office of the Spirit is to be a comforter. Now right
eousness affordeth peace of conscience, and quietness and holy secu
rity : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our con
sciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our con-
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 277
versation in the world ; ' Ps. xcvii. 11, ' Light is sown for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart ; ' Prov. xxix. 6, ' The righteous
doth sing and rejoice ; ' that is, whatever befalleth him, good or evil,
much or little, in life or death. And he hath comfort in his portion,
because what he hath he hath by the fair leave and allowance of God's
providence ; if it be little, that little is better than more gotten by fraud
and injustice: Prov. xvi. 8, 'Better is a little with righteousness than
great revenues without right ; ' Ps. xxxvii. 16, ' A little that a righteous
man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.' Suppose their
condition be evil, yet still they have ground of comfort ; if scorned or
neglected, yet he hath the comfort of his innocent dealing to bear him
out ; as Samuel when he and his house were laid aside : 1 Sam. xii. 3,
' Behold, here I am ; witness against me before the Lord, and before
his anointed ; whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken ? or
whom have I defrauded ? whom have I oppressed ? or of whose hand
have I received bribes to blind mine eyes therewith ? and I will re
store it you.' If opposed or maligned, as Moses: Num. xvi. 15, 'And
Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou
their offering; I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt
one of them.' If oppressed: Ps. cxix. 121, 'I have done judgment
and justice ; leave me not to my oppressors.' Suppose death cometh :
' The righteous hath hope in his death,' Prov. xiv. 32 ; Isa. xxxviii. 3,
' And he said, Remember, Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked
before thee, in truth, and with a perfect heart.' When he is going
the way of all the earth, this will be a comfort to him, that he hath
done no wrong, that he hath served God faithfully, and lived with men
without guile and deceit. Oh, for the comforts of a dying hour ! The
crooked, the subtle, the deceitful have them not, but those that walk
with a simple plain-hearted honesty.
III. It is a choice fruit of the Spirit.
1. Because it conduceth so much to the good of human society. A
Christian is a member of a double community, of the church and of the
world ; the one in order to eternal life, the other in order to the present
life : in the latter he is considered as a man, in the former as a Chris
tian. Now the righteous are pillars of human societies, that keep up a
spirit of truth and justice in the world, without which it would be but
as a den of thieves, or filled with liars, deceivers, robbers, enemies.
Remota justitia, saith Austin, quidfiunt regna nisi magna latrocinia ?
The world cannot subsist without justice. ' The king's throne is estab
lished by righteousness/ Prov. xvi. 12. The honour and reputation of
any nation is kept up : Prov. xiv. 34, ' Righteousness exalteth a nation.'
Never did the people of the Jews, nor any other nation whose history is
come to our ears, flourish so much as when they were careful and exact
in maintaining righteousness. And as to persons, all commerce between
man and man is kept up by it. Surely it is God, and not the devil,
that governeth the world, and distributeth the rewards and blessings
of this life ; therefore the way to do well in the world is not lying,
cozening, and dissembling, but a strict obedience to God's holy will.
2. Because of the many promises of God, both as to the world to
come and the present life. As to the world to come, the question is
put, Ps. xv. 1 (and it were well if we would put it oftener), ' Lord, who
shall abide in thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' And
278 . SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. [SEE. XL
it is answered, ver. 2, ' He that walketh uprightly, and worketh
righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.' Others are
excluded : 1 Cor. vi. 9, ' Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
.inherit the kingdom of God?' So for this world there are many
promises. Take a taste : Prov. x. 2, ' Treasures of wickedness profit
not ; but righteousness delivereth from death.' How soon can God
blow upon and blast an ill-gotten estate ! Job xx. 12-15, ' Though
wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue ;
though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his
mouth ; yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within
him. He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up
again : God shall cast them out of his belly ; ' and ver. 26, ' A fire not
blown shall consume him ; ' Job v. 3, ' I have seen the foolish taking
root ; but suddenly I cursed his habitation.'
Use 1. (1.) To show what a friend religion is to human societies,
that placeth so much in righteousness. It preventeth all that is false,
bad, unjust or cruel, and teacheth us to be tender, not only over other
men's persons and estates, but names. Grace doth not abolish so much
of nature as is good, but refine and sublimate it, by causing us to act
from higher principles to higher ends, and maketh these duties doubly
dear to us, in the flesh and in the Lord.
(2.) It showeth where the safety of Christians lieth, in their right
eousness. God is their protector: 1 Peter iii. 13, 'Who is he that
will harm you, if 3 7 e be followers of that which is good? ' And there
is a strong conviction in the consciences of wicked men : 1 Sam. xxiv.
17, ' And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I ; for thou
hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.' Moral
duties are not small things, when the glory of God, the safety of his
people, and comfort of our sincerity lieth in them.
Use 2. To press you to get this fruit of the Spirit.
1. Propound to do nothing but what is agreeable to righteousness
and honesty : Prov. xii. 5, ' The thoughts of the righteous are right, but
the counsels of the wicked are deceit.'
2. Be always exercising righteousness : Ps. cvi. 3, ' Blessed are they
that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times.'
3. Teach it to your children : Gen. xviii. 19, ' I know Abraham, that
he will command his children, and his household after him ; and they
shall keep the way of the Lord, to do judgment and justice.'
[See more of this in Sermon on Ps. cxix. 121.]
SEKMON XL
Goodness, righteousness, and truth. EPH. v. 9.
DOCT. 3. That to make a Christian complete in his carriage towards
men, to goodness and righteousness there must be added truth.
Let me inquire here (1.) What is truth; (2.) That it must be
made conscience of by the children of light ; (3.) Why truth must be
added to goodness and righteousness.
9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 279
I. What is meant by truth ? Ans. Sincerity or uprightness in all
our speeches and dealings with men. But because integrity of life, and
uprightness in our commerce and dealings with others, is a great branch
of righteousness, therefore here we must consider it as an opposite to
falsehood or a lie in speech ; yet not excluding either godly sincerity,
which is the root of it : ' Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,'
Ps. li. 6 ; or internal integrity and righteousness : Jer. v. 1, ' Hun ye to
and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and
seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any
that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth ; ' where truth is put
for integrity of life. But here we take it chiefly for simplicity of
speech, without lying and dissimulation ; as also it is taken, Ps. xv. 2,
' He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh.
the truth in his heart ; ' that is, maketh conscience of what he speaketh,
ruling his tongue so as it may go with his heart. To understand this
sort of truth, we must consider what a lie is. Men are said to lie when
they do wittingly or willingly, and with a purpose to deceive by speech,
signify to others that which is false. The matter of a lie is falsehood,
the formality of it is an intention to deceive ; the outward sign is
speech. Gestures are a sign by which we discover our mind, but an
imperfect sign ; the special instrument of human commerce is speech.
Now there is a twofold lying a lying to God, and a lying to men.
1. A lying to God is the worst sort of lying, because it argueth not
only falsity and evil hypocrisy, but misbelief or ill thoughts of God, as
if he did not know the heart and try the reins, and is contented to be
mocked with a false appearance. We lie to God when we put him off
with a false appearance and show of what is not in the heart, as if he
could be deceived with outsides and vain pretences : Hosea xi. 12,
'Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with
deceit ; ' meaning their false and deceitful pretences of repentance,
because they relented a little, and did some outward acts that might be
a sign and show of repentance, especially in a time of trouble : Ps.
Ixxviii. 36, ' Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and
they lied unto him with their tongues.' Their hearts were not sincerely
set against sin, whatever pangs of devotion they had for the present :
Ezek. xxiv. 12, ' She hath wearied herself with lies, and her great scum
went not forth out of her.' When the pot was over the fire, the scum
came a-top, and seemed ready to be cast out, but it was swallowed up
again ; for all their pretences of repentance, they were not cleansed
from their open and notorious sins. To this purpose also is another
similitude: Hosea vii. 16, 'They return, but not to the Most High;
they are like a deceitful bow.' They did not sincerely intend what they
promised ; as a man that shooteth, but doth not level right, or take care
to direct the arrow to the mark. So they cast out promises to get rid
of trouble, but do not seriously set their hearts to accomplish them ;
their repentance was but as a show, they aimed at nothing in it but to
deceive God.
2. As to men ; and so there are several sorts of lies. We may dis
tinguish them thus either from the matter, or the end, or the
formality used in lying.
(1.) From the matter, and so a lie is twofold assertory or
promissory.
280 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V, [SER. XL
[1.] An assertory lie is when a man, in a matter that is past or
present, reporteth that as false which he knoweth to be true, and that
as true which he knoweth to be false. This is called in scripture
speaking with a double heart : Ps. xii. 2, ' They speak vanity every one
with his neighbour, with flattering lips and with a double heart do
they speak ; ' or with a heart and a heart, as if he had one heart to con
ceive of the matter as it is, and another heart to furnish the tongue.
Instances of this falsehood in our assertions, or untrue relating of
things done, are frequent ; as Ananias, who brought part of the money
for which he sold his possession, instead of the whole : Acts v. 3, ' Why
hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back
part of the price of the land ? ' It was a lie, and a lie to the Holy
Ghost, as being pretended to be done by his motion and inspiration,
or because of his presidency in church affairs, where the Holy Ghost
doth all.
[2.] A promissory lie is when we promise for the time to come what
we never intend to perform ; and this is the worse, because it doth not
only pervert the end of speech, which is truth, but we also defeat
another of that right which we seemed to give him in the thing
promised, which is a further degree of injustice, as being not only
against veracity, but righteousness. Vain and empty promises are a
great evil, when we make show of kindness to others without any intent
to do them good : Prov. xix. 22, ' The desire of a man is his kindness ;
and a poor man is better than a liar.' The meaning is, that which is
desired of a man is his favour in such or such a business, wherein he
hath power to help you. Now many great men, that covet the praise
and reputation of doing a good office or kind turn, are very forward
in promises, but fail in performance ; and therefore Solomon, who had
observed the course of the world, telleth you that a poor man that
loveth you, and will do his best, is a surer friend than such great men
as only give you good words, or sprinkle you with a little court holy-
water, but will do nothing for you.
[2.] From the end ; and so there are three sorts of lies mendacium
jocosum, the sporting lie, tending to our recreation and delight ; men
dacium ojficiosum, the officious lie, tending to others' profit; and
mendacium perniciosum, the pernicious and hurtful lie, tending to our
neighbour's prejudice.
(1.) The sporting lie, when an untruth is devised for merriment.
I do not remember any instance of this in scripture, unless it may be
intended in that place, Hosea vii. 4, ' They make the king glad with
their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.' They stick not at
any sin, so they may make the princes merry. But this I am sure of,
that it is a sin to speak an untruth, and we must not make a jest of
sin : Prov. xxvi. 19, ' So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and
saith, Am not I in sport ? ' No ; if a Christian will be merry, he hath
other diversions : James v. 13, ' If any be merry, let him sing psalms ; '
Eph. v. 4, ' Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which
are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.' Let him not speak
things against the sense of his own mind, especially by false represen
tations traduce the godly, and make religion ridiculous, and say, I am
in sport. Idle words are to be accounted for : Mat. xii. 36, ' I say unto
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 281
you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof at the day of judgment/ Let him use harmless recreations^,
without accusing his brother falsely, or shamming him with devised lies.
Now to this sporting lie a fable or parable is not to be reduced, because
it is an artificial way of representing truth ; as when Jotham bringeth
in the trees conferring and consulting about their king, Judges ix. 8.
Nor yet such sharp and piercing ironies as we find used by holy men,
in the scripture ; as when Elijah saith, 1 Kings xviii. 27, ' He is a god - r
either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey ; or perad-
venture he sleepeth, and must be awaked ; ' for this is a notable way to-
make truth strike upon the heart with the more force.
(2.) The officious lie, for the help and relief of ourselves or others.
Instances we have of this in the scripture. Thus Kebecca teacheth
Jacob to lie, that he might gain the blessing, Gen. xxvii. ; and the
Egyptian midwives saved the male children of the Israelites by feigning
they were delivered before they came to them, Exod. i. 17, 18 ; unless
it may be extenuated, that so it was sometimes, and they might send
to them to use the help of other women. Though it be so, they feared
God, and were rewarded by God. Non remunerata estfattacia, sed
benevolentia Not their lie, but their mercy was rewarded: their
mercy was commended, but their infirmity pardoned. So Kahab saved
the spies by telling the men of her city that they were gone, when she-
had hidden them under the stalks of flax, Josh. ii. 5-7. Thus Michal,
to save David, feigned that he was sick, 1 Sam. xiv. 14 ; and David
advised Jonathan to an officious lie for his safety, 1 Sam. xx. 6 ; and
Hushai by temporising with Absalom, preserved David, 2 Sam. xvi.
17-19 ; and to divide his counsels, pretendeth hearty affection to him..
But we are to live by rule, not by examples ; and a good cause must
be followed by lawful means ; and courage and constancy will do more-
in these cases than dissimulation, and tend more to the glory of God,
and the preservation of ourselves and others.
(3.) There is a pernicious lie, to the hurt and prejudice of others.
Of this nature was that first lie by which all mankind was ruined :
Gen. iii. 4, 5, ' And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not
surely die ; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.' And Jacob's children's lie concerning Joseph : Gen. xxxvii. 31,
32, ' This we have found ; know now whether it be thy son's coat, yea*
or no.' And that of the Jewish elders concerning Christ, who said
that his disciples stole him away by night, Mat. xxviii. 12-14. All
lying is forbidden, but more especially this sort. I say, all these sorts-
are lies, for the scripture condemneth all without distinction : Eph. iv.
25, ' Wherefore put away all lying.' And all liars are shut out of the-
new Jerusalem, Kev. xxi. 8. And again, Eev. xxii. 15, ' Whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie ' is cast into hell. They all violate the natural
order which God hath appointed between the heart and the tongue,
and the law which he hath given to preserve faith in the world. The-
sporting lie is unnecessary, for we have other honest recreations where
with to divert our minds. And though officious lies are not to the
hurt but good of others, yet they are to the hurt and prejudice of
the truth. A man is not to lie for God, and therefore not for another
282 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. XI.
man ; he hindereth a greater good, which is the truth of commerce
between mankind, and he hurteth his own soul. Sin depriveth us of
a greater good. And Augustin telleth us of one Firmus who was
firmus nomine and firmior voluntate, who being interrogated by the
persecutors about such a person or persons as he knew concealed,
respondit mentiri nee posse nee hominem prodere, and suffered many
torments, till he obtained a pardon both for himself and them. But
of all lies, the pernicious lie is most pernicious. To deceive others
with an untruth, or to lie to their wrong, is both horrible falsehood
'and injustice.
[3 ] A lie from the formality used in making it may be distinguished
thus
(1.) A lie committed in ordinary commerce, when we speak of things
or persons otherwise than we know to be true. This is a lie ; for our
words ought always to be agreeable to our minds. Thus Job speaketh
of his friends : Job xiii. 4, ' But ye are forgers of lies.' Because they
accused him unjustly, though it were not in a juridical process. And
Christ of the Jews : John viii. 55, ' And if I should say, I know him
not, I shall be a liar like unto you;' and Ps. cix. 2, ' For the mouth
of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me ;
they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.' Thus impudent
backbiters will in secret vent their calumnies and slanders, and avouch
the most false things as truth ; and so a good man is secretly hurt and
wounded many times, and his reputation and service prejudiced when
he knoweth it not.
(2.) A lie committed in courts of judicature ; as Exod. xxiii. 1,
' Thou shalt not raise a false report ; put not thine hand with the
wicked to be an unrighteous witness/ So ver. 7, * Keep thee far from
ti false matter ; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not ; for I
will not justify the wicked.' Now this is the most heinous sort of lying,
because it perverteth God's ordinance, appointed for the finding out of
right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and turns a tribunal of justice
into a record of iniquity : Ps. xciv. 10, ' He that chastiseth the heathen,
shall not he correct ? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he
'know ?' Partly because witnesses are sworn ; and perjury, a lie con
firmed by an oath, is no small crime : ' God will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his name in vain,' Exod. xx. 7. Partly because they are
bound to witness the truth, and the whole truth, concerning the fact
in hand, which in ordinary commerce we are not bound to do. Indeed
in ordinary speech our purpose should be to inform our neighbour, not
to deceive him ; but we are not bound to inform him in all things, or
to make known all that is true in every matter of fact, but when we
are called thereto by justice and charity. I must speak falsehood at
no time, but I am not bound at every time to speak the whole truth ;
but in matters of testimony, I must speak all that belongeth to that
fact in question, without fraud or collusion. Therefore this is the most
criminal sort of lying. Partly because my neighbour is greatly wronged
by it ; he is wronged by privy detraction, but more evidently wronged
by a false testimony in judgment ; not only wronged in his reputation,
but in his life or estate ; not only before a few, but in the face of his
country, before all who shall have notice of it; and wronged in a
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 283
solemn way, not by whispers, but by a sentence given by God's deputies
and officers in the throne of judgment or seat of justice.
II. Why must it be made conscience of by the children of light, or
those who are ' light in the Lord'?
I answer For these reasons
1. Because it is a sin most contrary to the nature of God, who is
truth itself; it is not only contrary to his will but to his nature : Titus
i. 2, ' In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began.' He can do all things, but he cannot lie.
What a case had the world been in if God could lie, or were not of
undoubted truth ! for then we could be sure of nothing ; no sure direc
tion by his word, nor comfort by his promises. Therefore lying is a
sin that maketh us unlike God. God cannot lie, nor command us to lie.
He can command us to take the life of another, for he commanded
Abraham to offer Isaac ; the life of all creatures are at his dispose.
He can command us to take the goods of another, as when the Israelites
spoiled the Egyptians of their jewels ; for he is the sovereign Lord of
all, and can transfer right and property as he pleaseth from man to
man : but God cannot lie, nor give command for any to lie, because it
is contrary to his nature. And there is an impossibility in the case :
Heb. vi. 18, ' That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible
for God to lie ; ' as it is impossible for God to cease to be God, or to act
contrary to his nature. Therefore there cannot be 'a greater deformity
or unlikeness to God than to be given to lying.
2. Because when God was incarnate, and came not only to represent
the goodness of the divine nature, but also the holiness of it as a pattern
for our imitation, Jesus Christ, this God incarnate, was eminent for
this part of holiness, for sincerity and truth : 1 Peter ii. 22, ' Who did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' This was Christ's
character, and therefore it should be ours ; for this is true religion, to
imitate what we worship. You know Christ's commendation of
Nathanael : John i. 47, ' Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is
no guile.' Why an Israelite indeed ? Because he was like old Israel ;
for it is said of Jacob, who is also called Israel, that he was ' a plain,
man, and dwelt in tents,' Gen. xxv. 27. We may say of a plain-hearted
Christian, how weak soever he be otherwise, Behold a Christian indeed,
because he is like Christ. Therefore it is prophesied that in the days
of the gospel : Zeph.-iii. 13, ' The remnant of Israel shall do no iniquity,
nor speak lies ; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.'
"They shall be all like Christ. This prophecy intimateth both duty
and event ; it showeth not only what Christians should be, but shall
be, if they be true Christians. Well, then, this is the essential com
mendation of a true Christian. Some of God's saints may be famous
for several graces, but all for truth ; Moses for meekness, Phineas for
zeal, Abraham for faith, David for devotion ; but every one that is born
of God, and accepted of God upon the account of Christ, for sincerity
and truth. It is made the qualification of the pardoned to have no
guile : Ps. xxxii. 2, ' Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.'
3. Nothing maketh us more like the devil, who is a liar from the
beginning, and the father of lies : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do ; he was a murderer
284 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. XL
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no
truth in him : when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is
a liar, and the father of it.' All sins call him father, but chiefly a lie ;
for he brought sin into the world by the way of lying at the first. And
therefore to be given to lying argueth too much prevalency of the
satanical nature. The disposition to lie is the image of the devil, the
act is the work of the devil : Acts v. 3, ' Why hath Satan filled thy heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost ? ' and should the children of light be like
the father of lies ?
4. It is a sin most contrary to the new nature wrought in the saints,
and seemeth to offer more violence to it than other sins. The new
nature may be considered doubly, either as to mortification or vivifica-
tion ; the sins we put off, or the graces it produceth : both from the
one and the other consideration the scripture reasoneth against lying.
From the ' corrupt nature' which is put off : Col. iii. 9, ' Lie not one to*
another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds ; ' that is,
never suggest or say any false thing to the injury of another, since this-
is a principal part of that corrupt nature which we have put off, and
course of life which ye have all renounced. Naturally we are all full of
guile and falsehood ; now as a battered vessel must be new cast before
it be brought into any frame, so till the heart be renewed we are
crooked, perverse, deceitful. Now what the new nature renounceth
and destroyeth must not be cherished again. Sometimes from the
' new nature' which is put on ; as Eph. iv. 24, 25, ' And that ye put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness : wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with
his neighbour ; for we are members one of another.' Therefore this
is a very odious and unseemly sin in a Christian, and inconsistent with
the grace which he hath received, or contrary to that sincerity and
true holiness which is the fruit of regeneration. Therefore God pre-
sumeth that his people -will hate and abhor this sin : Isa. Ixiii. 8, ' For
he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie.' He
expecteth that his children will not deal falsely, nor circumvent and
deceive others, since he hath framed them for this very thing, cured
and set straight the crooked spirit in them, and disposed and fitted
them to deal sincerely, or to do all things as in his sight, according to-
his will, and for his glory.
5. It is a sin most contrary to human society. Man is by nature
tfiov TTokirucov, a creature fitted for society. Now all society i&
founded in truth ; take away truth and you destroy all human
converse, and there could be no living, nor trading, nor dwelling
together ; for if there be no truth, we are unfit to be trusted, and so it
overthroweth all the commerce of the world. If it were lawful to vend
counterfeit money without any restraint, how suspicious would men be,
and cast away true gold and silver as suspecting all ? Now money,
which is the material instrument of commerce, is not so necessary as-
truth and fidelity, which is the root and foundation of it. Therefore
God, as for other reasons, so for the good of mankind, hath condemned
all lying, that mutual commerce may not be destroyed. Much more
doth this hold good where the community is not only human, but
Christian, and so we all belong to the same mystical body ; so the apostle
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 285
urgeth it : Eph. iv. 25, ' Speak every one truth with his neighbour, for
we are members one of another/ Members should seek one another's
"welfare as much as they do their own : and it is monstrous for one
member to deceive and defraud another ; therefore the Lord com-
mandeth truth, and the Holy Spirit worketh this truth in us, that we
may be heartily and really serviceable and faithful one to another, as
members of the same body.
6. Lying is a sin very hateful to God, and against which he hath
expressed much of his displeasure. Partly by express declaration of
his mind. A lying tongue is reckoned among those six things which
God hateth : Prov. vi. 17, ' A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands
that shed innocent blood.' Nay, that it may not be forgotten or lost in
the crowd, it is again mentioned in ver. 19, 'A false witness that
speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren ; ' so again,
Prov. xii. 21, 22, ' There shall no evil happen to the just ; but the
wicked shall be filled with mischief : lying lips are an abomination to
the Lord ; but they that deal truly are his delight.' Now certainly we
should hate what God hateth, and love what God loveth ; for to nill
and will the same things is true amity and agreement. Partly by his
threatenings of destruction, both in this life and in the life to come:
Ps. v. 6, ' Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing ; ' Prov. xix. 5,
' He that speaketh lies shall not escape ; ' first or last God will cut
them off as unfit for human converse. The first remarkable instance
of God's vengeance in the new testament was for a lie : Acts v. 5, ' And
Ananias hearing these words, fell down, and gave up the ghost ; and
great fear came on all them that heard these things.' And in the life
to come : Rev. xxi. 8, ' All liars shall have their part in the lake that
burneth with fire and brimstone.' Now, when God is so express in
denouncing his judgments against such kind of sinners, all that have a
tender heart will tremble.
7. It is a sin shameful and odious in the eyes of men. The more
common honesty any man hath, the further he is from it, especially the
more he hath of the spirit of grace : Prov. xiii. 5, ' A righteous man
hateth lying ; but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame.'
All men hate a liar, because they suspect him ; this is that they gain
by lying, that they are the less credited, and not believed, even when
they speak truth. Therefore it concerneth God's children to keep up
the full value of their testimony, and to carry it so that all their words
may be received with respect and reverence. Christ used such plain
ness in his converse as a man, that his word was enough : John xiv.
2, ' If it were not so, I would have told you.' The Persians had such a
respect for truth, that he that was three times convicted of a lie was
never more to treat or speak in public affairs. Indeed men most guilty
of it cannot endure to be charged with it. Zedekiah smote Micaiah
on the cheek when he told him of his lying spirit, 1 Kings xxii. 23, 24.
Those that do not abstain from it as sinful count a lie shameful.
Though they have no conscience to make a lie before God, yet they
count it a disgrace to take the lie from men, because thereby they are
judged unfit for human society, or useless, if not dangerous to others.
III. Why this must be added to goodness and righteousness.
1 Because they cannot be preserved without it. Not goodness, for
286 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [&ER. XL
it will only be a counterfeit show, that endeth in empty words, and
promises or pretences of kindness when there is hatred in the heart i
' Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth/
1 John iii. 18 ; and again, Bom. xii. 9, 'Let love be without dissimu
lation ; abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.' Many
pretend in their professions, speeches, and promises, a great deal of
goodness, but in their hearts intend it not, but seek to get loose upon all
occasions. Men live by interest more than by conscience ; so righteous
ness cannot be preserved except there be truth; they are seeking,
some fair pretence for an unjust and wrongful course. When once the-
heart is hardened in lying, it is fit for all manner of injustice; for a liar
will stick at nothing, and most of our injurious practices are covered by
a lie : Prov. xii. 17, ' He that speaketh truth showeth forth righteous
ness ; but a false witness, deceit.' They that make no conscience of
lying will stick at no manner of unrighteousness ; but when their
interest leadeth them, will swallow perjury as well as lying, or purloin
and overreach others when they have an opportunity. There is no hold
of them ; for when there is such a gap opened in the conscience, what
sin will be kept out ? If the laws restrain them from violence, they
will do injury to others by deceit, which is so natural to them. And
so the security of the world is not sufficiently provided for till truth be
joined to the other graces.
2. The life of goodness and righteousness lieth in truth, and so they
cannot be thoroughly exercised unless truth be added. Sincerity runs ,
through all the graces. As to the upper part of religion, truth en-
liveneth all our worship. Where God is sincerely loved and worshipped,
he is more thoroughly served and obeyed : Isa. xxxviii. 3, ' Kemember
now, Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and
with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight ; '
1 Chron. xxviii. 9, 'And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God
of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing
mind.' Sincerity doth its best. So in the lower hemisphere of duty, ,
truth maketh us more exactly righteous and industriously good. It
maketh us more exactly righteous. There are many cases arise about
what is just and equal, and surely it is very profitable to have a deep,
solid, and large understanding, and where we are at a loss ourselves, to
consult with others ; but the best resolver of hard questions, next to
the Holy Ghost, is in our own bosoms. Sincerity will sooner interpret
our duty ; it is fleshly wisdom which breedeth all or most of our per
plexities. A sincerely righteous man hath that within him that
inclines him to righteous things : Prov. xii. 5, ' The thoughts of the
righteous are right ; ' Ps. xxxvii. 31, ' The law of God is in his heart ;
none of his steps shall slide.' So it maketh us industriously good. A
man truly good is much directed by the inclination of his own heart :
Isa. xxxii. 8, ' But the liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by
liberal things he shall stand.' They are always seeking out occasions
of doing good : Heb. vi. 10, ' Ye have ministered to the saints, and do
minister.' And he speaketh there of a labour of love. There needeth
not much ado with the sincere, for their hearts are inclined to these
things.
Use 1. To reprove many, because they make so little conscience of
VER. 9.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 287
truth. Lying is a more general and common sin than we imagine.
Those expressions intimate it : Bom. iii. 4, ' Let God be true, but every
man a liar.' The phrase intimateth, that though there be none in God,,
yet there is much falseness and unfaithfulness in men ; and it is said,
Ps. Iviii. 3, ' The wicked are estranged from the womb ; they go astray
as soon as they are born, speaking lies.' Falsehood and lies are kindly
sins to a natural heart, they break out early ; before they go, they went
astray ; the seed of these sins is in them, as if they began to lie as soon
as they came out of their mother's womb. And as it is an early sin, so
it is universal : Ps. xii. 1, 2, ' The faithful fail from among the children
of men, they speak vanity every one with his neighbour, with flattering-
lips and with a double heart do they speak.' This is the general dis
position of mankind. The most sacred bonds will not bind or hold
them to any truth and righteousness ; and a man knoweth scarce wha
to believe, the simplicity of commerce being almost lost in the world.
Use 2. It showeth how much they give suspicion that they are not
children of light who have not this truth wrought in them. Some
good men may lie, as the scriptures show, but they are not given to lying.
The very act is a foul sin ; but every lie doth not argue a graceless
estate. It is a sin more contrary to sincerity than other sins, yet some
few acts are not altogether destructive of it. David prayeth, ' Remove
from me the way of lying,' Ps. cxix. 29 ; that showeth he was too-
prone to it, he had been too faulty in that kind. How many acts show
the habit is very hard to determine ; and in so weighty a case as the
assurance of salvation, we should not leave the matter suspicious and
questionable. He that will sin as often as may stand with saving grace
shall never have assurance of his sincerity till he break this course and
way of lying by repentance ; and for the present there is a bar against
his actual entrance into heaven, or a present unfitness, till his recon
ciliation be made with God.
Use 3. See that ye be found in this grace also, as well as in goodness
and righteousness. God is truth, and requireth truth, and delighteth
in truth : Ps. li. 6, ' Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.' It is
your strength, as a girdle to your loins : Eph. vi. 14, ' Having your loins
girt about with truth.' It is your comfort, downright honesty breedeth
rejoicing : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our
conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly
wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the
world.' Therefore we should make great conscience of truth, putting
away all lying.
The means are these
1. Get your hearts healed and renewed by the Spirit. Till we have
a right spirit, we may speak truth out of interest, or for other reasons ;
but we are always in danger of being crooked and deceitful, for the old
heart is inclined to lying and deceit. It is called the ' old man, which
is corrupt according to his deceitful lusts/ Eph. iv. 22. There are
swarms of lusts will put us upon it, malice, envy, pride, vainglory,
worldly affections.
2. Let us hate it as a horrid sin ; do not think it a venial matter:
Ps. cxix. 163, ' I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love.' A
slight hatred is not sufficient to guard us against it.
288 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. XII.
3. Kemember your spiritual conflict. You never give your enemy
so great an advantage as by falsehood and guile of spirit. Satan's
weapons against you are wiles and darts : ' wiles/ Eph. vi. 11, and ' fiery
darts,' ver. 16. Against his darts or blasphemous thoughts you oppose
faith, and against his wiles your strength lieth in downright honesty.
Righteousness is your breastplate, and truth your girdle, ver. 14. This
will guard you against his temptations, and give you strength and
courage in the day of sore trial ; it is strength against him both as a
tempter and an accuser.
4. Heedfulness, or a constant watch over your tongue : Ps. xxxix.
1, ' I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.
I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me ; '
Ps. cxli. 3, ' Set a watch, Lord, before my mouth ; keep the door of
my lips.' And this watch is quickened by the fear of God, in whose
sight and hearing we always are.
5. Avoid the causes of lying. I shall mention some of them
[1.] Pride and self-esteem. We all affect to seem better than we
are, and what we want in real worth we make up by lying and foolish
boasting. The ' lying tongue,' and ' the tongue that speaketh proud
things,' are joined together, Ps. xii. 3.
[2.] Flattery, or a desire to ingratiate ourselves with great ones : Ps.
xii. 2, ' With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.'
A self-seeker is apt to flatter and fawn upon all that is rich and great
^,nd mighty, and to smooth them up with falsehoods and applauses.
Flattering and tale-bearing is many men's trade.
[3.] Fear of men and distrust of God. This puts many upon their
shifts to avoid their displeasure : Deut. xxxiii. 29, ' Thine enemies
shall be found liars unto thee ; ' that is, feignedly submit themselves
to thee.
[4.] Covetousness : Prov. xxi. 6, ' The getting of treasures by a lying
tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.'
[5.] Doing that which we are ashamed to own ; as naughty children
and servants commit faults, and then cover them with a lie. Now it is
dangerous to stand in need of a lie to help us out ; the devil hath a
tie upon you.
SERMON XII.
Proving what is acceptable to the Lord. EPH. v. 10.
THE apostle goeth on farther to declare what is required of them that
walk as children of the light. Our duty consists of two parts eschew
ing evil and doing good. How to do good is shown in this verse ;
what eschewing evil is required of us, the next verse showeth.
In the words observe
1. The act, 8oKi/j,d%ovres, ' Proving.'
2. The object, TO evdpea-rov ry fcvpi<a, 'What is acceptable (or well-
pleasing) to the Lord Christ.'
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 289
I. The act, ' proving.' The word signifleth so to prove as to approve
and practise.
1. Sometimes it signifieth bare searching or examining : 1 Thes. v.
21, ' Prove all things.' So it noteth an accurate and continual study
and endeavour to know God's will, by reading and meditating : Ps. i.
% ' And in that law doth he meditate day and night.' By hearing and
trying, as the Bereans are commended, Acts xvii. 11, 'In that they
received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scrip
tures daily, whether those things were so.' By praying and earnest
seeking : Prov. ii. 3, 4, ' Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest
up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and
searchest for her as for hid treasure.' This, and the use of all other
holy means, is the searching and examining commended to us.
2. Proving is put for approving : Bom. ii. 18, ' And knowest his will,
and approvest the things that are more excellent.' We must not
examine only, but approve what is good and true.
3. Taking upon ourselves an obligation to practise it: Rom. xii. 2,
' And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and accep
table and perfect will of God.' The meaning is, that you may under
stand and perform your duty : Phil. i. 10, ' That ye may approve things
that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offence till the
day of Christ.' Approve by adopting into your manners and practices :
it is SoKifj,deT6, the same word. Therefore, besides proving and approv
ing, there must be performing, at least an endeavour ; otherwise it is
a ridiculous thing, and that which will never stand us in any stead,
to examine what is pleasing to God, and practise the contrary.
II. The object, that which is pleasing or ' acceptable to the Lord.'
There is a difference between things.
1. Some things utterly displease God, as sin : 2 Sam. xi. 27, * But
the thing that David had done displeased the Lord/
2. Some things are not displeasing unto God, as all natural and in
different actions, which are not forbidden, but allowed by him : Eccles.
ix. 7, ' Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a
merry heart ; for God now accepteth thy works.'
3. Other things are commanded by him by a positive law, but have
no natural goodness in themselves, setting aside God's command.
Now these things are pleasing to God, as man performeth his required
duty ; but not so pleasing as the weighty things of the law, which
have a moral good in them, if God had given no express command in
the case. So it is said, Rom. xiv. 17, 18, ' For the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost ; for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to
God and approved of men.' Mercifulness, peaceableness, delight to
do good one to another, these are acts of obedience to Christ, and for
his sake will be accepted with God, and are of good report with men.
So morals must be preferred before rituals, and the great evangelical
duties before moral ; as love to God and faith in Christ before acts of
goodness and righteousness to men ; ' For without faith it is impos
sible to please God,' Heb. xi. 6. So Acts x. 35, ' But in every nation
he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.'
VOL. XIX. T
290 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. XIL
4. There are some things which do most please God, as things
eminently good are acceptable to him in the highest degree ; as, for
instance, faith in Christ is pleasing to God, but a strong faith is more
acceptable than a weak, which needeth props and crutches : John xx.
29, ' Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou
hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed ; ' that is more pleasing and acceptable to God. So love to
God is also an acceptable thing, but a fervent love doth more please
him : John xiv. 21, ' He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me shall be loved of
my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him ; ' Ps.
cxlvii. 11, ' The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those
that hope in his mercy.' So for obedience to God : 1 Thes. iv. 1,
' Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the
Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk, and
to please God, so ye would abound more and more.' So for duties to
men ; the apostle had mentioned ' goodness, righteousness, and truth,'
now ' proving what is acceptable to God ; ' that is, what is the eminent
discovery of any of these graces, that you may excel in all goodness,
righteousness, and truth. A renewed man should practise all Christian
graces and virtues in the highest degree, that he may be more pleasing
unto God, that he may be eminent in the faith and love of Christ, and
goodness and righteousness to men. Therefore we should not barely
inquire what is our duty, but what is well-pleasing and most accept
able to God.
Doct. That proving what is acceptable to God is one great duty
which belongeth to the children of light.
I shall explain this point by these considerations
First, Our great end and scope should be to please God, and be
accepted with him. The apostle speaketh in his own name, and in the
name of all that are like-minded with himself : 2 Cor. v. 9, ' Wherefore
we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him/
That is a Christian's scope and work, and this he carrieth on living or
dying. In the body it is his business to please God, out of the body it
is his happiness to be accepted with him. While he is in the body,
he would be found still in a course of pleasing God ; and when he
goeth out of the body, he would be found in a state of well-pleasedness
and acceptation ; one cannot be without the other. And it must needs
be so
1. With respect to God, whose favour is our happiness, whose wrath
is our misery, upon whom we depend for life and being and all things.
Dependence begets observance. Men take themselves to be obliged to
please those on whom they have their whole dependence, and are very care
ful not to offend them, if possible; and if they be offended, to be speedily
reconciled to them. As the men of Tyre, Acts xii. 20, when Herod was
highly displeased with them, ' They came with one accord to him, and
having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace,
because their country was nourished by the king's country.' The mat
ter stands thus between us and God, his displeasure is our destruction :
1 Cor. x. 5, ' And with many of them God was not well pleased, for
they were overthrown in the wilderness.' His being pleased is our
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 291
happiness, both here and hereafter. Here we need him, his presence
with us, to direct us in our doubts, to relieve us in our straits, to supply
us in our wants, to qomfort us in all our troubles, and to strengthen
us against our weaknesses. Now they that would have the comfort of
God's presence and company in all conditions, and have so much to do
with God in the world, they ought to set themselves to please God, and
observe his will in all things according to his word : John viii. 29, ' And
he that hath sent me is with me : the Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always the things that please him ; ' 1 John iii. 22, ' And
whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,
and do those things which are pleasing in his sight/ And hereafter
our happiness lieth in our presence with God ; and indeed the one can
not be without the other. None can live with God hereafter but those
that take care to please God before they go hence : Heb. xi. 5, ' By
faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not
found, because God had translated him ; for before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God.'
2. With respect to man, who may be considered either as to his first
creation or renovation by Christ. The first creation infers an obliga
tion, our renovation by Christ an inclination to do things grata Deo,
acceptable and well-pleasing to God.
[1.] As we are creatures. We were made and sent into the world
for this end, that we might approve ourselves by a constant course of
obedience to the God that made us, and finally be accepted with him,
and received into his glory. The wise God made nothing in vain ; and
surely he made not man to fill up the number of things, as stones ; nor
to increase in growth and stature, as plants ; nor to eat and drink, and
serve appetites, as beasts ; but he made us to serve and please and glorify
him : Prov. xvi. 4, ' The Lord hath made all things for himself.' All
creatures were made to glorify him in their several capacities : Kom.
xi. 36, ' For of him, and through him, and- to him, are all things ; to
whom be glory for ever. Amen.'
[2.] As we are new creatures we own the old obligation ; for we enter
into covenant with God to become his servants ; and faithful servants
have this only aim, to please their master. Therefore all our aim must
be, that we may be acceptable unto the Lord ; for by entering into
covenant we ' choose the things that please him,' Isa. Ivi. 4. This is the
fixed determination of our souls. We enter into covenant with God
that we may become his and do his will. So that we do not only own
the obligation, but by the grace of renovation we receive both direction
and inclination to do what is pleasing to God. Direction, this is the
effect of the renovation of our minds : Kom. xii. 2, ' But be ye trans
formed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.' A man in his pure
naturals is neither able savingly to understand or do the will of God,
but by grace he is fitted for both. Take grace as light, and it fits us
to receive God's counsel and direction ; and therefore the apostle saith
here, ' Ye are light in the Lord ; walk as children of the light, proving
what is acceptable to the Lord.' Take grace as strength, and it en-
ableth and inclineth us to do what is pleasing in his sight : Heb. xii. 28,
' Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with rever-
292 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. XII.
ence and godly fear.' For it inclineth us to make his glory our scope,
and his will our rule ; for the tendency of the new creature is to live
to God.
3. With respect to the thing itself. The seeking to please God and
be accepted with him is so necessary and profitable to us that
[1.] We cannot be sincere unless this be our aim and scope. One
main difference between the sincere and hypocrite is in the end and scope.
The one seeketh the approbation of men, the other the approbation of
God ; the one is fleshly wisdom, the other is godly simplicity and sin
cerity : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our con
science, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,
but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.'
Godly sincerity is making God our witness, approver, and judge. He
is sincere whose religion beginneth and endeth in God, acts in truth
from God, and purely for God.
[2.] This maketh us serious and watchful, and to keep close to our
duty ; for the aptitude and fitness of the means is judged of and mea
sured by the end. When we have fixed our end and scope to please
God, we will address ourselves to such means as are fitted to that end,
and make straight towards it without any wandering. If it be our great
end to be accepted with God, and please God, we will take the more
care of our actions, that they be agreeable to his will. Whereas other
wise we live at perad venture, neither taking care that we may not
offend : Ps. xxxix. 1, 'I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin
not with my tongue ; I kept my mouth with a bridle while the wicked
is before me.' Nor humbling ourselves when we have offended : Jer.
viii. 6, ' No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have
I done ? ' So that the exercise both of watchfulness and repentance
dependeth on frequent reflections upon our end.
[3.] This will solace and comfort us under the difficulties of obed
ience. As (1.) When it is troublesome to confine our desires and
actions within the compass of our rule ; but when we consider we are
not to please the flesh, but to please God, it will help us to mortify the
deeds of the body, and to live in a constant course of self-denying
obedience. Otherwise, Eom. viii. 8, ' They that are in the flesh cannot
please God.' They have another master, the corrupt nature within
them, the desires of which they seek to gratify ; they are debtors to
another lord, ver. 12. So (2.) In reproaches. Men are displeased with
a faithful thorough obedience to God, which not only the carnal world,
but the spiritual part of the world, so far as it is carnal, disliketh.
Therefore when we are censured and traduced, 1 Cor. iv. 13, ' Being
defamed, we entreat : we are made as the filth of the world, and the
off-scouring of all things unto this day.' If God will count me faithful,
it is no matter what the world thinketh of me. So (3.) In an afflicted
estate. The desire and aim to please God maketh us indifferent to all
conditions : Phil. i. 20, ' So Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life or by death.' As a traveller taketh the way as
he findeth it, foul or fair, so it conduceth to the end of his journey. So
that it is absolutely necessary to fix this as our end and scope.
Secondly, We please God by doing what he hath required of us in
his word. There are certain things evident by the light of nature
VER. 10.] SKRMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 293
which belong to our duty ; these must not be overlooked : Micah vi.
8, ' He hath showed thee, man, what is good ; and what doth the
Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God ? ' The things there mentioned are evident by
the light of nature. That we should carry ourselves justly towards
men, and with reverence and obedience to the divine majesty, is evident
by the light of nature, as well as scripture. But the revelation that
he hath made of our duty to us by the word is more clear, full, and
certain.
1. It is more clear : Ps. cxix. 105, ' Thy word is a lamp to my feet,
and a light to my path.' The use of a lamp is by night, and the light
of the sun shineth by day. Whether it be by day or night with us,
we clearly understand our duty by the word of God ; in all conditions
we may know there how to behave ourselves. Once more, the word
'path' iioteth our general choice and course of life; the word 'feet'
our particular actions. Now whether the matter that we would be
informed of concerneth our choice of the way that leadeth to true
happiness, or else the direction of any particular action of ours, still
the word directeth a humble and well-disposed mind. So that here
our duty is clearly stated ; and if a man standeth in awe of the word,
and be not divided between conscience on the one side, and lusts and
interests on the other, he cannot easily remain in doubtfulness, or
miscarry.
2. It is more full; for the book of nature is blurred by man's
apostasy from God, and degeneration from his primitive excellency ;
and our chief good and last end being altered by sin, we strangely mis
take things, and weighing them in the balance of the flesh, which we
seek to please, we put light for darkness and evil for good : Isa. v. 20,
' Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet
for bitter ; ' and so miserably grope in the dark, and cannot see clearly
our way to true happiness. And besides, man's condition is such, that
he needeth a supernatural remedy by a redeemer, which, depending
on the mere grace of God, cannot be found out by bare natural light ;
for natural light can only judge of things necessary, and not of such
things as depend upon the arbitrary will and love of God, as our redemp
tion doth : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world that he gave his only-
begotten Son, that whosoever believetfi on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.' Besides, nature is dark in things proper to its
cognisance. The great lines of our duty are fair and legible, the out
ward work is written upon our hearts : Rom. ii. 15, ' Which show the
work of the law written in their hearts.' Abstinence from gross sins,
performance of external duties, some notices of good and evil, are escaped
out of the ruins of the fall, and serve in part to convince of sin and
mind us of our duty ; but that full, entire, spiritual obedience which
is due to God is not known by nature. Therefore, besides the candle
of the Lord within us, which is reason, God hath set up a lamp in his
sanctuary, which is the scripture, to direct us in the way to heaven ;
and this is clear and full, and compriseth all that is necessary to our
duty and happiness.
3. It is more certain, as having a greater stamp and impress of God
294 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiB. XII.
upon it. Everything that hath passed God's hand discovereth its
author. The light of nature showeth itself to be of God, much more the
light of scripture, wherein he hath discovered more of his wisdom, good
ness and power, as being such a revelation of the mind of God as is
fit for God to give and us to receive, suited to the nature of God, to
preserve a due honour, esteem and reverence of his blessed majesty, and
exactly calculated for our necessities, to teach us the way of recovering
out of sin, and obtaining our true and proper happiness, and coming
attested to us with such evidence from heaven as we cannot rationally
withstand : 2 Peter i. 19, ' We have also a more sure word of prophecy,
whereunto ye dp well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a
dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts/
It is surer than the light of nature, as not liable to such debate and
uncertainty, which must be cleared before man's duty can be stated to
him ; and more sure than miracles, oracles, visions, as being put into
writing ; and a faithful record, as the constant measure, standard, and
rule of faith and manners for the use of God's people in all ages. Now
it is good to see how David compareth those two revelations of the
mind of God, Ps. xix., where he first admireth the brightness of the sun,
and then the purity of the law ; the joining of both which meditations
showeth that the world can be as ill without the word of God as with
out the light of the sun. What would this inferior world be without
the light of the sun, but a great cave and obscure dungeon, where men
would creep up and down like worms out of their holes ? And besides,
the comparing of both together showeth that there are two books
wherein we shall do well to study, and both made by God himself, and
both manifesting and discovering God to the world the book of nature
and the book of scripture. You cannot look upon the book of the
creatures, but in every page and line you will find this truth presented
to your eyes, that there is an infinite eternal power that made all things,
and is to be owned, reverenced, worshipped, and obeyed by us ; this is
enough to leave the world without excuse. But in the book of the
word you may see more of God and the way to enjoy him. This doth
more powerfully convince man of his misery, and clearly show him his
remedy. The use which the psalmist makes of these books is notable ;
of the first, to admire the glory of God by the beauty of the heavens ;
of the second, to humble and awe man by the purity and strictness of
the law, as all religion lieth in the knowledge of God and ourselves.
This latter book being more perfect, should be our daily study, to pre
vent error and mistake, and that we may get the true knowledge of
God's will ; for many do many things out of zeal and religion which
God abhorreth : John xvi. 2, ' The time cometh that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doth God service.' And others obtrude many
things on the faith of believers without warrant : Isa. viii. 20, ' To the
law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them/ Examine all things by the rule
of God's word, what is conformable to his will, what not, without suffer
ing yourselves to be deceived by false opinions or persuasions. And
besides, in our practice we may know what is acceptable, either as to
our speeches or actions. As to our speeches : Prov. x. 32, ' The lips
of the righteous know what is acceptable ; but the mouth of the wicked
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 295
speaketh frowardness ;' that is, they know what is acceptable to God ;
they are instructed out of his word how to order their speech for profit,
that it may be good, and minister grace to the hearers ; others easily
bewray the corruption of their hearts by their tongues. So for all our
actions towards God and men. For worship, God accepteth that whicli
he hath required ; other things are vain oblations : Isa. i. 12, 13,
' When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your
hand, to tread my courts ? Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is
an abomination unto me ; the new moons and sabbaths", the calling of
assemblies I cannot away with ; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.'
And for our conversation with men, how to show forth righteousness,
goodness and truth, we may know what is the will of God in his word ;
this rule will teach us : Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to
this rule,' &c. Our rule is riot left indifferent for us to choose, nor
arbitrary for us to impose, but it is fixed in the word of God revealed in
the scripture.
Thirdly, If we would know God's mind revealed in his word, we
must use search and trial. AoKi^d^ovre^, ' proving,* noteth great
diligence and care that we may know the mind of God ; for it greatly
importeth us, and we are often pressed to it: 1 Thes. v. 21, ' Prove all
things, hold fast that which is good.' If we see but a piece of money
that hath the king's image stamped upon it, we bring it to the touch
stone to see if it be right : do so with doctrines and practices, bring
them to the law and to the testimony, see how they agree with God's
word : 1 John iv. 1, ' Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they are of God ; because many false prophets are gone
out into the world/ Every man that teacheth, some spirit or other
cometh upon him ; therefore try what kind of spirit it is, whether it
be a formal worldly spirit, as some fashion their religion according to
the world, or a heavenly spirit, which is of God ; whether it be a spirit
of bitterness against the saints, or a spirit of love, meekness, and
gospel sincerity. This is the course we must take if we would know
the mind of God in doubtful matters. We must seriously weigh all
things in the balance of the sanctuary, read, hear, confer, pray, meditate,
use all holy means to know God's will.
I will (1.) Prove this is a Christian's duty ; (2.) State it.
1. That it is every Christian's duty, in reference to his own warrant
and settlement of conscience, to use a judgment of discretion, and not
to depend upon the judgment of others ; yea, not to satisfy himself
barely with the public judgment of the church, but to try things, that
he may know that he is in God's way, and wherein he shall be approved
and accepted of him.
[1.] Certainly every one that feareth God should be acquainted with
his word, and have his senses exercised therein, that by long conversa
tion in holy things he may come to have a discerning faculty. The
apostle speaketh of some, Heb. v. 14, ' That have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil ; ' which are gotten by long use. There
fore much study, meditation, and attention is necessary to find out the
true sense and meaning of God's word, that we may discern between
good and evil. And still this habit is more to be increased in us.
We are told in the book of Job, chap, xxxiv. 3, ' The ear trieth words,
296 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SER. XIL
as the mouth tasteth meat/ But it had need be a judicious ear that
shall as readily distinguish doctrines as the mouth doth meats, as they
are hurtful and noxious to us. Now Christians being to have this ear
of discretion, to try and judge of what is spoken to them, they should
be much acquainted with the word of God, to get this habit of spiritual
prudence : Prov. xiv. 15, ' The simple believeth every word ; but a
prudent man looketh well to his going.' Christians should be men of
experience and knowledge, free from the itch of fancies and novelties,
and free from the distempers of passions, prejudices, and interests, or
whatsoever may corrupt their taste. On the other side, God complaineth
that his people were strangers to his law : Hosea viii. 12, ' I have
written unto them the great things of my law, but they were counted
as a strange thing.' We should not be strangers to the scriptures ;
every one (especially in a disputing age, wherein sects abound), accord
ing to his measure, should be satisfied of the truth which he professeth,
that he be not deceived, and carried away with every foolish insinua
tion, and so embrace Leah for Kachel, Babel for Sion, and every fond
suggestion for the truths of God.
[2.] Because we are not to take up opinions by chance, but by choice :
Jer. vi. 16, 'Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, ask
for the good old paths, Where is the good way ? and walk therein, and
ye shall find rest to your souls.' Men in a tempest are sometimes cast
upon a place of safety, rather than make thither out of intention and
foresight ; therefore a man needeth to search and try things ; the more
he receiveth truth upon evidence, the more firm is his assent, and the
more steady and constant is his practice ; for then he hath (2 Peter iii.
' 17) 'a steadfastness of his own ;' he doth not stand by the steadfastness of
others, or the common consent ; he hath proper reasons within himself
to sway his assent, or command his practice ; therefore a Christian is to
prove and try all things.
[3.] The judgment of others will be no plea for us in the last day, if
we be wrong ; for we are to follow the dictates of our own consciences.
I say not that we are to follow our own private fancies, but conscience
enlightened by the word. So ' the spiritual man judgeth all things/
1 Cor. ii. 15 ; that is, for his own satisfaction, otherwise it will not
excuse us that we depended on the judgment of others : 'If the blind lead
the blind, both fall into the ditch,' Mat. xv. 14. Not only one, but
both ; not only the blind leader and guide, but those that are led by
them into a wrong way ; it endeth at last in perdition.
2. I will state it, since many abuse this principle of trying all things,
and upon the pretence of it give over themselves to a vertiginous spirit,
wandering in a maze of errors, till at length they come not only ta
despise their guides, and all the helps which God hath offered in the
church, but to cast off all fear of God, and sense of religion itself.
Therefore I shall state it.
[1.] We should be so far confirmed in principles and supreme truths,
that we should be more ready to maintain than examine them and
commit them to the uncertainty of dispute. In things clear and
evident, it is a madness to be still doubting and making inquiries :
Deut. xii. 30, 'And that thou inquire not after their gods.' It i
dangerous to loosen foundation-stones.
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 297
[2.] We must not be so still trying and proving as to hold nothing-
certain in religion. This is to be 'ever learning, and never able to-
come to the knowledge of the truth,' 2 Tim. iii. 7, and to turn the
sureness of the Christian faith into a mere scepticism, and distract our
minds still with new inquiries.
[3.] Not to try so as to cast ourselves on a temptation. Men take-
occasion hence to run through all sects and opinions in religion. Why ?
They say they must try all things ; that is, as they interpret it, run into-
the mouth of danger, and think no harm will come of it. No ; the
meaning is, in these things which by the providence of God are pro
pounded to you for truths, and come to you in the way of an ordinance :
Acts xvii. 11, ' These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in
that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched
the scriptures daily whether those things were so.' Or if cast by
necessary ordinary conversation on differing parties ; or when doubts*
and scruples arise in our minds. Smothering of doubts breedeth
atheism and hardness of heart. Or as to the present truth : 2 Peter
i. 12, ' Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remem
brance of those things, though ye know them, and be established i
the present truth.' So that a man is not to seek snares, and cast
himself upon temptations, but when God in his providence puts him in
such places and times where satisfaction is necessary, he must exercise
himself in the word of God, that he may distinguish between good and
evil.
[4.] Some things are controversial in religion, and above the size and
capacity of some men's gifts. Now for them to inquire too curiously,
or to define rashly in such cases, is against the apostle's rule : Rom.
xii. 3, ' For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that
is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think ; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man-
the measure of faith.' These presume above their measure, and are
like little children, that attempt to run before they can go ; and there
fore they should content themselves with such truths as concern,
Christians in their own vocation. God's gifts are divers, as their call
ings are in their nature and quality different. The weak in the faith
must be received and owned as Christians, but not to doubtful disputa
tions : Rom. xiv. 1, ' Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not
to doubtful disputations/
[5.] When we are to prove all things, the meaning is not that we
should study controversies, and be able to answer all the cavils of the
adversary. That is a special gift required of the minister ; he must be
able, Titus i. 9, ' To hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the
gainsayers.' But every man is bound to search, so as to be resolved a&
to his own choice and practice. And though every Christian cannot
answer all things that are objected against the truth, yet he is to be
' fully persuaded in his own mind,' Rom. xiv. 5, and so far to look into-
things as may make for the settling of his conscience, that he may
neither do things necessary to practice rashly, and without deliberation :
Prov. xix. 2, ' That the soul be without knowledge is not good ; and he
that hasteneth with his feet sinneth ; ' nor after deliberation doubtingly:
298 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SfiR. XII.
Rom. xiv. 23, ' He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth
not of faith ; for whatsoever is not of faith, is sin.'
[6.] We are not so to search as to depend upon our private judg
ment, or slight the helps which God hath left in the church for the
establishing of the truth, even pastors and teachers. Them hath God
left in the church, ' that we may not be carried about with every wind
of doctrine,' Eph. iv. 11, 14. Men are not to despise the judgment of
their teachers in matters of faith, nor rest upon it as infallible. He
that hath a bad sight should not throw away his spectacles. Where
helps are instituted, and have a special calling, and a special promise
of a blessing, they should not be despised. In all necessary things,
4 Christ's sheep hear his voice,' John x. 3. But in lower matters, they
may be shrewdly mistaken, and work great trouble to the church.
Avoid these rocks, and the duty is clear, and of great importance. By
searching and proving the truth loseth nothing, as gold doth not by
being brought to the touchstone ;. but you gain much settlement, feel
more power and comfort in what you know.
Fourthly, We must search and try, that we may walk as children
of the light. The night was made for rest ; the light is not given us for
rest and idleness, but for work. The apostle prayeth for the Colos-
sians, that they ' might be filled with the knowledge of God's will, in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that they might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing,' Col. i. 9, 10. That is the end of know
ledge : Isa. ii. 3, ' He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths ; ' for the end of learning is practice.
1. The more we fix this end, the sooner shall we get knowledge,
and the more will it be increased to us. John vii. 17, he that will do
the will of God shall know what doctrine is of God. A humble holy
heart, resolved to practise whatsoever shall be the will of God, will not
be long left in doubt; the more you make conscience of knowing
truths, you shall know more.
2. As we shall know sooner, so we shall know better; we shall
approve the truth in our consciences, and find the comfort of what
we know in our own souls, if we pursue the practice of it : Phil. i. 9,
10, ' And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment,' alcrdrjcret,, in all sense, 'that ye
may approve the things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and
without offence till the day of Christ.' We know our duty by the
word, but we find the goodness of it by practice and experience.
3. We are not else good faithful servants to God: Luke xii. 47, 'And
that servant which knoweth his lord's will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.'
On the other side, John xiv. 21, 'He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself
to him.' First have, and then keep. Therefore we must search out
what is pleasing to God, that we may do it. Knowledge is not to be
sought that we may be puffed up with it, and rest in mere knowing,
and so please ourselves with idle and useless speculations, but to govern
and order our practice.
Use 1. Is for information.
VER. 10.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS v. 299
1. That the judgment of discretion must be allowed to all Christians.
In controversies about religion it is usually asked, Who shall be
judge ? The church hath a public judgment what doctrines are to be
publicly recommended ; but every man hath judicium discretionis, a
judgment of discretion for himself. God hath given every man a taste
for his body, to discern what is wholesome and to discern what is
noxious, and so also for his soul and conscience.
2. That the new creature hath great advantages above others of
knowing the truth. The Holy Spirit dwelleth in them : 1 John ii. 20,
'Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.'
They are light in the Lord ; they may go to God for direction with
more boldness : Ps. cxliii. 10, ' Teach me to do thy will, for thou art
my God ; thy Spirit is good, lead me into the laud of uprightness.'
They have a promise : Ps. xxv. 14, ' The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant;' Hosea xiv.
9, 'For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in
them ; but the transgressors shall fall therein.' The sanctifying Spirit
is given to sanctify us, to give us the saving knowledge of God by the
word. They know the truths contained there clearly and effectually,
which others know superficially.
3. That it is not easy to acquit ourselves as children of the light ;
much study and search into the scriptures is required of us : Ps. i. 2,
' But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in that law doth
he meditate day and night. And much heedfulness, that we walk
accordingly ; much watchfulness over our hearts : Prov. iv. 23, ' Keep
thy heart with all diligence;' and our ways, ver. 26, 'Ponder the
path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.'
Use 2. Is for reproof to several sorts.
1. Some that take no care to know their duty. This is great neg
ligence, or downright hypocrisy : 2 Peter iii. 5, ' But this they are
willingly ignorant of ; ' which in a matter of such importance is
damnable : Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall they escape which neglect so great
salvation ? ' They will not inquire, because they have a mind to hate,
or no mind to embrace.
2. Some that walk at peradventure, and live rashly, as governed by
passion, lust, and appetite, rather than any sure and steady direction :
Ps. cxix. 133, ' Order my steps in thy word, and let not iniquity have
dominion over me.' These cannot escape reigning sins.
3. Some are out in the end, either please the flesh or the lusts of
man. The rule is not, what will please the flesh, but to do the will of
God : 1 Peter iv. 2, ' That he no longer should live the rest of his
time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.' Not
what is acceptable to men, but what is pleasing to God : Gal. i. 10,
* For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.'
300 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SEE. XIII.
SERMON XIII.
And have no fellowship tvith the unfruitful ivories of darkness, but
rather reprove them. EPH. v. 11.
THERE are two parts of the spiritual life things to be done, and things
to be avoided ; in both the children of light must show their fidelity to
God, in doing good and avoiding evil. Of the first we have spoken
already in ver. 10, and have showed that it is not enough to do a few
good things, to which all consent, but we must diligently search and
find out what is acceptable and well-pleasing to God. I now come
to the second branch of our duty, avoiding evil, ' And have no fellow
ship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.'
Wherein take notice
1. Of the object, or what is forbidden, 'The unfruitful works of
darkness.'
2. Our duty and carnage about it, in two things
[1.] 'Have no fellowship with them,' have nothing to do with them.
[2.] ' But rather reprove them ; ' that is, by all means show that you
utterly dislike that course of life.
DocL That the children of light should live in a perfect abhor
rence of, and stand at a great distance from, the unfruitful works of
darkness.
1. I shall explain.
2. Prove this point.
I. For the explication ; and there (1.) The object ; (2.) The acts
of duty about it.
First, For the object. We have a general and unlimited expression,
' The unfruitful works of darkness.' But what they are we may col
lect from the context, ' Uncleanness, fornication, evil concupiscence,'
&c. ; and Eom. xiii. 12, 13, the apostle reckoneth up other tilings: 'Let
us cast off the works of darkness, &c., and let us walk honestly as in the
day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wanton
ness, not in strife and envying.' These and suchlike heathen practices
are such as the apostle intendeth.
Now in this expression you may take notice of two things (1.)
They are called ' works of darkness ; ' (2.) They are said to be
' unfruitful.'
1. They are called ' works of darkness ' for these reasons
[1.] Because they are done by men in their carnal estate, who are
destitute of the Spirit of God, and all saving knowledge of his will.
The corrupt estate of nature is called darkness, as the renewed estate is
called light : 1 Peter ii. 9, ' He hath called us out of darkness into his
marvellous light.' And chiefly because the one live in ignorance, and
the other estate beginneth with the illumination of the Holy Spirit ;
and therefore these sins are called ' works of darkness,' because igno
rance is the mother of them. Did men know the amiable nature ot
God, the purity of his holy law, the matchless love of Christ, the true
worth of souls, the blessedness of eternal life, and the danger of perish
ing for ever, it would spoil the devil's works, and he could not have
. 11.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 301
such a hand over them as usually he hath : ' As obedient children, not
fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance,'
1 Peter i. 14. Ignorance is the mother of profaneness ; they neither
know the terror nor the sweetness of the Lord, and therefore wallow in
their impurities. Light is an awing thing ; when once men come to
the knowledge of the truth, they are ashamed of what they prac
tised before. But how hard a matter is it to make men understand or
regard anything while ignorant, and destitute of saving knowledge !
[2.] Because they are suggested by the temptations of the devil, who
is the prince of darkness, and the ruler of the darkness of this world ;
and therefore called ' his lusts,' John viii. 44 ; ' his works/ 1 John iii.
8. He enticed the world of mankind from God, and still detaineth
them by their slavery to their lusts. Did men know whose work they
are a-doing they would sooner desist. The devil is the great architect
of all wickedness, and the first mover of it ; though carnal men do not
what they do in love to him, but their own flesh, yet it is he sets them
a-work, and cheateth them into rebellion against God, and abuseth
the ignorance and error of their minds to draw them to these sins.
[3.] Because they cannot endure the light, but seek the veil and
<x>vert of secrecy. There is a threefold light
(1.) Natural. They rebel against this light : Job xxiv. 13, ' They
-are of those that rebel against the light ; they know not the ways thereof,
nor abide in the paths thereof ; ' and ver. 17, ' For the morning is to
them even as the shadow of death; if one know them, they are in the
terror of the shadow of death.' He meaneth by light there the ligh